A Visitor From the Future
by juliannaspencer21
Summary: Harry gets a visit from someone from the future... not jsut someone, someone... but a Malfoy. A malfoy who just witnessed the death of everything magic. Antoine Malfoy is anything but ordinary, trained to fight and kill at a very young age, he was sent to the Past to protect harry who was killed before he could start his horcrux hunting. read and find out what happens in the story
1. How Harry met a person from the Future

A Visit from the Future

Summary: Harry gets a visit from someone from the future... not jsut someone, someone... but a Malfoy. A malfoy who just witnessed the death of everything magic. Antoine Malfoy is anything but ordinary, trained to fight and kill at a very young age, he was sent to the Past to protect harry who was killed before he could start his horcrux hunting. together they will go on this mission and destroy Voldemort together.

Disclaimer: Hp does not belong to me it belongs to J.K. Rowlings… Antoine is mine however

Chapter 1: How Harry met a person from the Future.

July 2198

Explosion wracked the building and the whole structure shook as the people inside tried to defend it with their lives, people were being shot at and there was many dead people in their wake. The people attacking them walked in groups shooting at the people defending their territory and they were losing ground fast.

Inside the control room, there were people hurriedly moving on panels and there was one man who was on the controls glaring at the screen. It was annoying these muggles were annoying.

"Status report," snarled the man.

"The muggle army are steadily coming inside, most of our men have been wiped out, they are heading his way commander," said one of the men in the controls. "Shall I call on a retreat?"

"No need, we are clearly surrounded," said the man and then stood up. "Prepare the time potion; it is time we fix this mess…. Send in Lieutenant Malfoy immediately."

Sitting down he stared at the paper and then sighed as he penned a few more words down and then soon a blonde haired man entered and then stood straight and then he saluted the commander. He was around the age of 17 and all through his life; he knew nothing but be trained to kill since he was born in this stupid wizard-muggle war. This had been going on since 200 years ago.

"Lieutenant Malfoy, I am sending you to a solitary mission," said the commander. "You are to go back to the past and protect a boy named Harry potter, befriend him and protect him until he finishes his mission. Where I will be sending you, you will be in the same age as him; it would be easy for you to protect him. However you would have to use another name. Go by the name of Von Bielefeld… a Muggleborn wizard… yes I know but we cannot let our ancestors know… Here you will need this. Go now… the potion will be waiting for you in your room."

He threw a shrunken chest at him and then he caught it and he looked at it knowing that it had all the fortunes of the Malfoys there. He pocketed it and then he turned to the commander and then saluted him and then saluted him.

"I won't let you down commander, I will make you proud" said the young Malfoy and then turned around and left the room the commander then smiled softly at him.

"You already make me proud my son," he said and then went back to concentrate on the war.

The young Malfoy entered his room and then found the bottle there and then snatched it up and then noticed a diary there, it was the diary that all Malfoys have, it would come in handy when the time comes since it had there written everything that happened so far… that way he could prevent them from happening.

Picking up the diary he placed it in his pocket beside the chest and then opened the stopper and then downed the potion. After waiting a while he suddenly keeled over and then grasped his heart as he suffered convulsions, afterwards his mind became blank and he knew no more.

What he didn't know was that his body disappeared, and what he also didn't know was this his father and everyone else was shot in the head by the army and that an hour later every building that was deemed magical was blown up to smithereens… in that future magic had ended… forever.

~0~0~0~0~

July 1998

The young Malfoy woke up with a groan as he took around his surroundings, everything seemed different and he was on his guard. He sat down only to be greeted by a wand between his eyes and he had to go cross-eyed to look at the wand and then looked up to see that a man was pointing it at him.

"Ei, who are you?" he asked. "You look fancy enough to be sleeping on the ground."

The young Malfoy looked around and spotted people sitting there on the side streets looking dejected and dirty, he stood up and then went to feel his body and sighed in relief. His guns and knives were still on his person. He looked around the place and then turned to look at the wizard.

"Please sir can I ask for the year?" he asked and this caused the man to look at him as if he had two heads.

"Are you out of your bloomin' mind?" he asked. "This is the year 1998."

"1998? Are you sure it isn't 2198?" the young Malfoy asked.

"No its not," said the wizard. "Are you sure you are alright? Perhaps I shoulda' bring yah' to St. Mangos."

The young Malfoy waved him off and then started walking down the street with a look on his face, he needed somewhere quiet to look into the diary and find out what he had to do… but first he would need a wand for himself. He knew how to use magic most of all wandless and unspoken magic but here everyone used wands… it would be safer for him to get one so it would look inconspiqous… but first lodgings and the diary.

He stopped when he came across a wall and then blinked as he looked at it and then placed a hand on it clearly puzzled. He could feel that there was magic in the walls and that it was hiding something, he blinked when he felt a man come. He watched him tap the bricks on the wall and it moved and he passed through… the young Malfoy needed to study everything indeed.

The young Malfoy soon found himself in the leaky cauldron in what he saw was an inn. He blinked as he walked to the bar and then stopped as he looked at him. Tom the barkeep paused on what he was doing and then looked up and down at the young Malfoy; he did not see him or his outfit before.

"Can I help you sir?" he asked and then waited for his answer.

"Yes, can I have a room for tonight?" he asked. "And some dinner and breakfast to come after?"

"That would be 20 galleons total," said tom to him.

"Galleons, of course," said the young Malfoy. "I will give it to you in the morning."

Tom the Barkeep handed him the key and then motioned him up the stairs and then the young Malfoy headed up the stairs and then found his door. He slipped in the key and then closed the door and locked it. After that he headed to the bed and then sat on it and then pulled out the diary. Time for him to study he opened the book then started skimming the entries until saw the date and the word he was looking for and started reading.

_August 20, 2002_

_The muggles found out of the wizarding world, it is all thanks to Voldemort who thought that killing humans would make our world better. Because of him the muggles found out about us and started a freaking war, Because of this wizards and witches have to learn how to handle muggle weapons and machinery since their shields can shield out spells… we are technologically inept with handling them… _

_It all started when Harry potter was killed in august 1998 by Voldemort and his death eaters during his transfer from Privet drive to Phoenix headquarters, they were going to use the sky but Voldemort and his men were ready and set off an attack in which case harry potter was kill. Because of that Voldemort steadily took over the whole wizarding world, the light were slowly subdued as the war escalated to high ends causing destruction on the muggle world as well. Because of this the muggles found out that our kind existed and thought we were a threat to them. Because of that they took to arms and this caused both the light and the dark to come to a standstill to fight against the muggles that are killing us. However, we are not prepared for muggles, a little bit of us are being killed every day, our lines are ending… we are at the brink of extinction if this keeps going… Merlin help us all_

_Draco Lucius Malfoy_

_New Lord of the Malfoy house_

The young Malfoy closed the book and then placed it on his bed and then sat down, now that he had a clue to where he was heading it was time to get to work. He pulled out the chest his father gave him and then enlarged it by tapping on it and then opened it, inside were chests upon chests and he pulled out one and then enlarged it once more and then took a sack and filled it with Galleons. He returned the chests to his place and then pocketed the sack of galleons and then smiled… it was time to shop.

"Well shopping here we come, First off… dyeing my hair," said the young Malfoy. "So first off to the parlor."

He pocketed the diary and then left the room and then headed back to diagon alley, oh he had a lot to do before he could finally meet and start on his mission. He knew he should change his look after all his mission was to protect harry potter, and from what he understood Malfoys at this time were Voldemort supporters. In addition, he knew he must not get in touch with any Malfoy as he was now… that would be very detrimental to the future, his future if you mean.

His first stop was in Madame Sofor's salon where he dyed his hair black and styled his hair to look different and more elegant and after that he headed to Madame Malkin's for some suitable clothes that matched this era, not the army uniform he was currently wearing which he knew he would have to burn at one moment. After all there should not be any evidence of his being here anymore than necessary. He would also have to deposit his money in Gringotts for the meantime so he wouldn't have to carry this chest around and purchase a house that is as close to privet drive or on it as possible, he didn't know when harry would be moving so he had to act fast.

After getting his clothes he went to Gringotts and opened an account under the name "Von Bielefeld" and came out with a briefcase with muggle money and a sack of galleons and then walked back, he would have to meet with a real estate broker to buy a house and all that but first a wand. He went to ollivanders and then entered it looking around and blinked when he looked at a wizened old man.

"You… I haven't seen you before," said the man. "Come here for a wand?"

"Yes, that is if you have anything suitable for me," said the young Malfoy.

"It's not the question if it will suit you, the question is will it choose you," said Ollivander. "Which one is your wand arm… sir?"

"Von Bielefeld, Antoine Von Bielefeld," said the young Malfoy. "Will this take long?"

"It depends if we find the right wand for you," said Ollivander and Antoine sighed as he settled himself for the long wait.

An hour later he was out of his the shop with a wand o his hand finally feeling complete… he had even tried a few spells he knew and it had worked wonderfully. Well, he had clothes, shoes, and a new look and everything, even a few book about Harry potter (So he would know what he looks like when he meets him). He was ready to find that house that was on privet drive.

"Well Muggle world here we come," said Antoine and then turned around and then went back to the inn and then once he exited the door of the leaky cauldron seeing that they were doing it and he soon found himself in the muggle world. Feeling a bit wary about being near muggles he walked onwards and flagged down a taxi. Spending his time spying on humans you would have to learn a few muggle things to survive and it was lucky Antoine knew them by now. He was not in the Special Forces for nothing after all.

After flagging down a taxi he headed to the real estate agency and then sat down and was in lock, there was a house being sold in Private drive, a Number 4 private drive. Antoine could not believe his luck, he would be able to watch Harry potter better now with a house in private drive and decided he wanted to look at the property before buying. He and the broker entered the car and then entered the car and drove all the way to the house and once they arrived they were greeted by a very thin woman who looked like a horse.

"Mrs. Dursley, this is Antoine Von Bielefeld," said the broker. "Mr. Von Bielefeld this is Mrs. Petunia Dursley, she and her husband are selling the house."

"A pleasure to meet you," Antoine said graciously. "I hope you don't mind my intruding, I am just here to View the house."

"Oh do come in," said Petunia. "You can have a tour of the house… let's start with the second floor."

He was led to the stairs and at the stairs Antoine froze when he spotted someone on the stairs… that someone he should not be in contact with just yet. The man he was supposed to protect Harry potter. He froze and then stared at the young man and then quickly looked away and then turned to Mrs. Dursley? They were selling the house? What for?

"Pardon me Mrs. Dursley, perhaps you don't mind my asking," he suddenly asked. "Why are you selling the house?"

He noticed Petunia Dursley look at harry and harry looked back and then she turned to Antoine and then gave him a small smile.

"my Family and I are moving because my husband is being relocated," said Petunia, though she kept looking to her right and her grip was a little too tight, something Antoine knew that she was lying. He knew right away with her initial look at harry that they were going into hiding.

"I see," said Antoine and then turned to look at the boy. "And who is this young man?"

"My nephew," said Petunia. "Harry potter… he studies in St. Brutus School for the criminally minded."

Antoine blinked and then stared at harry who he saw was looking at the side and then he turned to look at petunia and then tilted his head and then smiled.

"Really, he doesn't seem like a criminal to me," said Antoine with a smile. "Shall we get on with the tour?"

Antoine smiled as he was led upstairs, he was given the tour of the room, though he had to wonder why he was toured in Harry's room… was that a cat flap on the door? Antoine most certainly hope that he was not being bullied. By his family no less.

At the end, Antoine decided not to get the house because that house would not be in his interest anymore… which meant that he had to take care and protect harry potter. Since his "death" was very near. His family was moving away which meant that the day of Harry's assassination was close. He had to get ready.

Antoine spent the days leading to the move spying on harry potter, and soon the day of the move came. Antoine woke up and then sat up, he was ready for this day, he had to protect harry potter at all costs. Putting on some leather clothes and his boots, he laced them up and then tied them together, he dressed up and placed his weapons all around and then tied them together. Then he turned around and grabbed hold of the fastest broom in so far and then went to the air throwing a disillusionment charm on himself and continued to fly over private drive.

There he watched as the family moved away leaving harry potter there alone in the house, Antoine moved closer and then once he noted that Harry was asleep he threw a tracer spell on him and then disappeared until nighttime, He didn't know when Harry would be killed so he had to keep a close eye. He watched as a witch and wizard heralded them into the car and they drove away… well it was just him and harry now and on with his duty.

When it was nighttime however he noted a few people coming and then he straightened up from his stool and then looked at the men and women who came, he looked at them and then he narrowed his eyes as he realized he was looking at Weasleys and several people he didn't know… well he did work with Weasleys before. Therefore, he knew they could be trusted.

He watched as they used polyjuice and he smirked, a wise plan only he knew if he wasn't here the plan would have failed because harry potter would have been killed… how he didn't know but today was supposed to be his day of death and Antoine was planning that it will not be today.

Antoine then watched as they took the sky and Antoine followed the real harry by a few feet and stood up slowly, then stared at the open grounds as they ran full smack to the enemy. Antoine pulled out his wand and his gun and then pointed it at the enemy, it was time to fight and he knew how to fight… quite well in fact.

Antoine fired a spell at a death eater and fired his gun at another, it hit the man between the eyes and he fell down to the earth dead, Antoine looked around to see that they were surrounded and he fought for his life only to see that the giant was driving away. Antoine swerved to follow them was only greeted by green light, he expertly maneuvered himself only for the light to hit the blasted bird and Antoine shot and killed the one who shot the green light.

He heard Harry shouting that they had to go back but Thankfully Hagrid continued to move onward and Antoine continued to follow and fight in the rear, throwing spells that were both light and dark in repertoire. He killed quite a few death eaters himself and then quickly followed the accelerated speed of the motorcycle as Hagrid pressed a button to speed up… twice. However the second did not go as planned as the sidecar disentangled from the flying motorcycle and harry started dropping towards the earth at Breakneck speed.

Antoine did not hesitate and then dived and soon caught up with him and grasped the hand that was failing for him and then pulled him up and then looked at him, Harry stared at the man who saved him and recognition flashed through his face as he recognized the man who went on tour with the house. Antoine Von Bielefeld was it.

"You," Harry said.

"Yes me, no time to explain," said Antoine. "Voldemort and his minions are coming any minute, and I don't want to have a confrontation with the dark lord or my dear grandpapa anytime soon…. I have orders to protect you and protect you I shall."

"Wait if you are in the order why haven't I met you before?" he asked.

"I'm not part of the order of the Frying chickens," said Antoine with a sneer. "However that is for another time, we have things to do… and I have a duty that I must fulfill."

Antoine withdrew his gun and then fired at a death eater with what Harry noticed was with deadly accuracy and then he fixed himself behind Antoine and then pulled out his wand… Who was this person? He acted like a soldier, and had muggle weapons, but could use magic… when did the muggle army start training wizards? Harry was confused.

"I will try to lead you away from the fight," called out Antoine as he dived and then took out a couple of smoke pellets, he threw them in the air and then aimed at them and it exploded, Antoine casted a quick disillusionment charm on them both and then flew away. They landed on the ground and then he climbed off and then they were greeted by an elderly couple.

"Are you Harry Potter?" he asked.

"Yes," harry said though shaken and then Antoine kept both wand and gun away and then turned to him. "Who are you?"

"As I said my name is Antoine Von Bielefeld," said Antoine to him. "I've been assigned to protect you."

"That doesn't answer anything, why would I need protecting," said harry.

"Because harry potter, without me you would be dead today," said Antoine. "And trust me, with your death, the wizarding world will be falling to pieces. I have already said too much, I have to go but I will be back, Good day."

Antoine bowed but then the diary fell out and then landed on the ground open, harry bent to pick it up and then looked down to see that it was a diary yet the date was impossible… 2013? They were in 1998? Why was there an entry written for the year 2013? In addition, from the entry it was Draco who wrote it… who was he?

"Who are you and why do you have Draco's diary?" he asked. "Tell me, I don't think you are who you are."

Antoine paused and then straightened out the classic unreadable Malfoy face on and then stared at harry, then he walked onwards and then calmly took the book from him and then placed it back on his pocket and then looked at him.

"Your right, I am Special Forces Lieutenant Antoine Severin Malfoy, I'm from 200 years in the future, I was sent here by my father Commander Lucianius Harald Malfoy to go back 200 years to the past and protect you until you finish your mission. If you fail, the effects of your failure will have dire effects on the future of the wizarding world… therefore I was sent to aid you in your endeavor."

Harry stared at Antoine as he stood there and then he blinked and tried to process it but it was too much, Harry just survived an attack from Voldemort. In which he found out was that he was supposed to die today, he met a man who was from 200 years in the future, this man helped him and saved him. Not only that, said man was a Malfoy and a descendant of his worst enemy Draco Malfoy… this was too much for Harry that his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fainted.

Thank you for reading this Chapter… Please Review ((And I do mean it))

Long Authors notes:

1.) Hey guys, it's me, I feel bad that I can't continue my hp/tmnt story, I don't have the chapters anymore so I can't update it anymore… and because of that I have been in a slump. Nevertheless, I think I am back and this time with a better story… if you have any questions regarding the plot, come to me and I will answer your questions.

2.) We all know that you shouldn't change the past, but Antoine's doing it for the sake of magic… he isn't doing it because he wanted too. He had to because it was for the best.

3.) I have made a Facebook page… hopefully you will see everything I have been doing… its www. facebook Juliannaspencer21 just remove the space… so if you have a facebook don't hesitate to post there or send me a message

juliannaspencer21


	2. in which Antoine meets the order

A Visit from the Future

Disclaimer: Hp does not belong to me it belongs to J.K. Rowlings… Antoine is mine however

Chapter 2: in which Antoine meets the order

Harry woke up with a groan and turned to look around and he found that the Weasleys, Tonks and Remus surrounded him. He lay there and then looked at eh ceiling, they were looking at him worriedly and then he placed a hand on his forehead.

'Yeah right, as if there was someone from the future who saved me from falling to my death,' thought Harry as he sat up and all at once zeroed in on a man who was seated tied to the chair, his knives, gun and wand were displayed on the table.

"Hello Harry you had a nice sleep?" asked the man and then stared at one of the Weasleys who had his wand trained to him. "Could you call off your Weasley, Potter? I hate having a wand pointed at my face."

Harry blinked and then shook his head as he stood up… he was clearly a Malfoy, he stood up and then sighed as he looked at Bill who had his wand trained at his face.

"Bill, it's alright, he is harmless," said Harry.

"Are you kidding harry, look at the weapons he has with him," said bill. "Perhaps the death eaters sent him to kill you."

"Are you insane, if I was sent to kill potter then I would have already done it," said Antoine. "You can check me if you want, if you have veritaserum I can tell you… oh wait cut that I can't go around spilling secrets to you secrets that can have dire effects for you, Weasley."

"Bill, he's fine, he saved me," said Harry as he went and untied his wrist and took his left wrist and lifted up the sleeve and then showed it to him and it showed unblemished skin. "He doesn't have the dark mark, and you can check for any concealment spells too."

"Go on, so that we will be dine with it," said Antoine and then leaned back and gave a huff as Bill started sending spells at it and then found that there weren't any spells and then moved back and then looked at the others.

"He's clean," said Bill and moved back to have Antoine rise and grab his arsenal and strapped them back on his person.

"Thank you for the hospitality," said Antoine as he picked up his wand and fixed his sleeves. "Now Potter about your mis…"

Harry looked around quickly in panic, then went to him, and then pulled Antoine by the collar to a private room and then slammed the door, Antoine watched him as he pointed his wand at the door and heard him mutter something like "muffle-ato" and then turned to look at each other.

"Look Malfoy, I know you were sent from the future to protect me, but I don't want anyone else to know about the mission, "said Harry. "Only you, me, Ron and Hermione know about this mission."

"And what pray tells is this mission?" Antoine asked and then harry looked at him.

"Wha… you… you don't know what this mission is?" Harry asked.

"No, all I know is that you are my mission," said Antoine. "I'm to protect you until you finish yours, which in essence, your mission also becomes my mission."

"What do you know of Horcruxes?" Harry asked.

"Horcruxes?" Antoine asked. "I'm sorry I don't know, a lot of our books were destroyed during the war, the only way I know spells is through word of mouth and the portraits… I'm sorry but I don't know."

"What do you know about…" harry asked but was quickly interjected by Antoine.

"The dark lord?" he asked. "Well I know that he was the one who signed the extinction of the magical world… it was because of him that the Muggles found out about magic. That is why I am here to prevent that future from happening… you are the future Potter. Therefore, it is my duty and responsibility to protect you. I have protected you from your death just now but who knows what other events can lead you to your other deaths, therefore I am here to protect you and fulfill my duty."

Antoine looked at him and then watched as Harry huffed and then leaned back, from what he could see that this man was not lying. In addition, he did look like a Malfoy, though this Malfoy was weird. He looked like he was trained at the army, and he looked like he was their age 17. In addition, he had and could use muggle weapons with deadly accuracy. He knew that the Malfoys now wouldn't even touch muggle weapons not without a ten foot pole much less know how to use them but this Malfoy had an arsenal of them on his body… How bad was the future did this Malfoy came from? Was it so bad that that the Malfoys would not hesitate to carry and use guns? Very bad, He surmised.

"Very well, you will come with us when its time," said harry. "Until then we will have to call you by the name you first introduced me as… Von Balefield?"

"Von Bielefeld," said Antoine. "A muggleborn wizard."

"Muggleborn?" echoed Harry. "Alright then, now I know that I need to save the future as well, the Malfoys would never take the guise of a Muggleborn wizard… not in a million years… wait 200 years."

"That was then and this is now," said Antoine. "This is for the safety of the Wizarding world. The dark lord has to fall."

"Then we are in agreement?" he asked and then extended his hand and then Antoine stood up and then shook it.

"Agreed," said Antoine and then both of them shook hands and then let go and then harry turned to the door and then paused. "Now remember no talking about the mission to anyone but Ron, Hermione, and I got it."

The only answer he got was a raise of an eyebrow before Harry sighed and then opened the door and exited and then went to join the others who looked Grim seated around the table. From what Antoine could tell was that only a few arrived and there seemed to be trouble… from the looks of it. Antoine and the others sat down on the table as Andromeda went to serve everyone tea.

"What's wrong?" harry asked.

"Mad eye moody fell," said Remus. "We can't find his body anywhere."

"He… You-know-who killed him." Said Bill. "I and a few of us watched him fall… With that height…"

They all fell quiet and then bowed their heads not wanting to mention that. After all a death of an esteemed ally was a very heavy one. After a while, Remus started to get up.

"Well I will go and start looking…" he was about to say but was interrupted by Antoine.

"I'd rather you didn't," said the young Malfoy as he sipped his tea.

"What?" The werewolf asked and then he turned to look at Malfoy.

"That is what they want you to do," said Antoine. "It would be obvious that the man's body would be under the hands of the enemy…. If you go out and search for the body, they would in turn capture you and torture you for information about your organization. I've seen this kind of modus operandi before… if you value your lives… better not do it."

The people there fell silent, as he knew that Antoine spoke the truth, it would be obvious that there would be enemies mulling about. Since they saw moody fall, it would be obvious that they would be keeping an eye on the surroundings just in case they come poking about. This meant they had to leave the body there, even if they did not like it.

"By the way who are you?" Remus asked and Antoine looked at them.

"My name is Antoine, a simple Muggleborn wizard," said Antoine. "As for my credentials, I can't tell you anything but that I was tutored in magic at my home since my mother didn't want me attending school when there was a deranged megalomaniac around. Well if you can say on what side I am I can say that I am at least sympathetic to your cause."

"Really, but you act as if you don't really care for sides," said Remus.

"No, I don't care if you are "light" or "Dark"," said Antoine. "What I care about is things that can benefit magic… we are all magic and being born as light and dark does not mean we are light or dark, in fact it is the actions of the people that make them light or dark… even the dark started with pure intentions you know. I am neither sympathetic to the light nor dark but what only benefits magic."

Antoine went back to his tea as harry stared at him, what they didn't know was that because of the muggle-magical warfare light and dark families were forced to put aside their differences and band together to fight against the enemies. The light families had to learn how to kill and dark magic to fight, and dark families had to learn light spells like healing spells and such… in the end the definition of light or dark was gone… there was only magic and muggles. And the fight to keep magic alive.

"You are a strange one," said Ted as he arrived. "You speak as if there are no stereotypes."

"I am not one to believe in stereotypes," said Antoine as he stood up his cup finished. "The light can become dark and the dark can become light… it all depends on the person."

Suddenly the doors opened with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley coming in with a floating red-haired man followed by its identical in what Antoine guessed was twins and then watched as they laid George down and he went to inspect him, he was covered in wounds in what he could guess was "Sectumsempra."

"Hmm, that's nasty," said Antoine but then noted that the only major injury was the hole for an ear. "I can fix him up nicely."

Antoine pulled his wand and then stopped and stared, it would be his first time that he would be casting the counter/healing spell with a wand. He pointed it at George and he was mildly aware that harry had to stop Arthur and molly from coming in front of their son while Antoine started muttering spells to heal him. After all, when you are in a mission and need medical help and you can't move because it was dangerous then you would need to heal yourself… so Antoine knew a few first aid spells in his arsenal, but George would need medical checkup to see if what he did was right.

Both Arthur and Molly made a move to stop him only Remus and Harry stopped them while the others turned and watched. Harry noted that only Severus Snape only knew the counter course. He must have taught it to the wizards to shoot and heal using that spell. After all only Severus Snape, Remus and he only know that spell... How bad was it in the future?

"There, but you need to bring him to the hospital," said Antoine. "He may need a blood replenisher for the blood that he had lost."

He leaned back and then cleaning the blood from his clothes, then turned around to see George sit up and then fill one side of his face, and then looked around.

"How do you feel, Georgie?" whispered Mrs. Weasley.

George's fingers groped for the side of his head.

"Saint like," he murmured.

"What's wrong with him?" croaked Fred, looking terrified. "Is his mind affected?"

"Saint like," repeated George, opening his eyes and looking up at his brother. "You see… I am holy. Holey, Fred, geddit?"

Mrs. Weasley sobbed harder than ever. Color flooded Fred's pale face as he burst out laughing as Antoine did know whether to let it go or scold him that he should not be making jokes over his injuries but let it slide. He walked outside and looked up. He swore he was going to help harry kill voldemort and he was going to be doing that.

Soon after that everyone joined in, Antoine was standing guard and had wands pointed at him only for harry to say that it was all right. Ron and Hermione had a hard time believing him after all the story of him popping up at some time, after they met in private drive when the Dursleys were selling the house, did not sit well. Hermione on the other hand was studying Antoine.

"Well, it looks to me he came from the military," said Hermione. "Seeing him stationed at the entrance, but I didn't know that wizards have a military force and uses guns."

"They don't," said Antoine. "My father put me into special training shortly after I was born. My father's a commander and he didn't want his son to be defenseless so he had me trained with weapons, I can say they have been useful so far."

"Yes, but they don't seem to be military grade guns," said Hermione.

Antoine used his hand to cover his gun; he could not say that these were military issued guns 200 years into the future. After all, it was too dangerous for them to find out that he was changing the future events.

"I can assure you they are, my father gave them to me to do this mission," said Antoine. "My father told me that I have to help Harry potter and I am… that's all I have to say."

"I've got to go," said Harry looking outside and then Antoine turned to look at him along with ten pairs of eyes.

"Don't be silly, Harry," said Mrs. Weasley. "What are you talking about?"

"I can't stay here," he said as he looked at Antoine who sighed and turned his head away.

He rubbed his forehead; it was prickling again, it had not hurt like this for more than a year.

"You're all in danger while I'm here. I don't want —" he said.

"But don't be so silly!" said Mrs. Weasley. "The whole point of tonight was to get you here safely, and thank goodness it worked. And Fleur's agreed to get married here rather than in France, we've arranged everything so that we can all stay together and look after you —"

She did not understand; she was making him feel worse, not better. Voldemort was rampant outside, he had to go, and do his missions not stay behind to watch bill marry fleur.

"If Voldemort finds out I'm here —" he started but was interrupted by Molly.

"But why should he?" asked Mrs. Weasley.

"There are a dozen places you might be now, Harry," said Mr. Weasley. "He's got no way of knowing which safe house you're in."

"It's not me I'm worried for!" said Harry.

"We know that," said Mr. Weasley quietly, "but it would make our efforts tonight seem rather pointless if you left."

"Yer not goin' anywhere," growled Hagrid. "Blimey, Harry, after all we wen' through ter get you here?"

"Yeah, what about my bleeding ear?" said George, hoisting himself up on his cushions.

"I know that —" he started again

"Mad-Eye wouldn't want —" said another but this time they were interrupted by harry.

"I KNOW!" Harry bellowed.

He felt beleaguered and blackmailed: Did they think he did not know what they had done for him, didn't they understand that it was for precisely that reason that he wanted to go now, before they had to suffer any more on his behalf? There was a long and awkward silence in which his scar continued to prickle and throb.

"I would suggest you stay Harry," said Antoine. "You are safe here… the dark lord is looking for you, you wouldn't want to give yourself away. Everyone, it is better if you stayed here as well. Just for the night, I will keep an eye out, who will take second shift?"

He looked outside and then took out his gun and then nodded to Kingsley when he agreed for the second shift, he used his magic to lift himself on the roof and walked to the chimney and then leaned on it. It was a good blind spot in the night because of the shadow, he could see things around, and he stood vigil all through the night.

~0~0~0~0~

The next day they headed to the Weasleys and Antoine entered it and looked around in veiled wonder, so this was Weasleys place before it was burned down by the muggles. It looked topsy-turvy, and Antoine wisely did not say anything. However, he did help guard the place and the wedding preparations. They were waiting for Harry's 17th birthday, which were a few days away.

Antoine was reading the diary for any clue on what the whereabouts of the horcruxes were. He did remember that there was an insurrection in the ranks of Voldemort, they were the ones who hunted for the Horcruxes and the leader of the insurrection was the Malfoys themselves. The reason for the insurrection is that they were tired fighting both light wizards and muggles and the light wizards had felt the same. The leader of the insurrection amongst the Death eaters was Lord Draco Lucius Malfoy, the only son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy nee black.

"Harry, it'll be one extra day," said Ron as he cut through Antoine's reading and he looked up to see that they were talking about the thing again. "You know how they will act when you leave them on the special day."

Harry was silent as he leaned back, you could tell that he really was not happy with what they said and then looked away. Antoine knew that stance was that he was stuck and he did not like it.

"Don't they realize how important —?" harry started to say only to be answered by Ron.

"Course they don't," said Ron. "They haven't got a clue. And now you mention it, I wanted to talk to you about that."

Ron glanced toward the door into the hall to check that Mrs. Weasley was not returning yet, and then leaned in closer to Harry. So that they were the only ones that could hear, Antoine went back to his reading, how his ancestors found out about the horcruxes was above him… and then he stilled. Lord Draco only mentioned that it was Harry potter that died, not Ronald and Hermione. Ron and Hermione were obviously alive at that time, and must have told Scorpius or Draco about that, once it was proven that He could be trusted. It was probably to pass the mission along if something happened to them.

Antoine started leafing through the pages and finally found the entry and then started reading it

_August 20 2038_

_Journal,_

_Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Weasley visited me today, they have told me rather startling news that could tip the war against Voldemort to our favor. Something that they along with Harry Potter… Merlin bless his soul… was supposed to do. A mission that was given to them by Albus Dumbledore himself, the former leader of the order of the phoenix. The mission… is to find and destroy the horcruxes. I am a bit rattled that the dark lord would use such an underhanded method in attaining immortality however; it does explain his delusional ways._

_So far what they know is that the ring that Dumbledore wore before his death was one, and so was the diary, the locket remains elusive and so this RAB character. I am getting along in my years and I have to keep the family business running. I cannot be seen running around and therefore I will have my son, Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy join in the search. The reign of this lunatic must be stopped, if this is the only way then I will do it. To help Ronald and Hermione I will look at the Malfoy tapestry for this RAB character… as my way to help them._

_Draco Lucius Malfoy_

_47__th__ head of the Malfoy house_

"Mum's been trying to get it out of Hermione and me. What we are to do. She will try you next, so brace yourself. Dad and Lupin have both asked as well, but when we said Dumbledore told you not to tell anyone except us, they dropped it. Not Mum, though. She's determined," he said and then he jumped when he closed the diary and then looked at Ron and Hermione and then raised his eyebrow.

"Well, we can say this," Antoine said. "Say that it is a confidential matter that is good for their safety, because the fewer people know what it is the safer it will be… we can't let the enemy find out. Therefore, the fewer people know the better. Besides all we can do is rest and recuperate to regain our strength…. What we are about to do is going to be a long and arduous task."

Antoine looked outside and then spotted Remus coming in and then he nodded and went to grab his gun, it was time for him to guard the premises. They had talked about this for the night, it would be better to keep an eye out for death eaters that were coming their way so that they were ready just in case anything happened. Remus just finished his shift and it was Antoine's time. He disappeared into the roof and stationed there just like always, while Remus went to get something to eat.

Ron's prediction came true within hours. Shortly before lunch, Mrs. Weasley detached Harry from the others by asking him to help identify a lone man's sock that she thought might have come out of his rucksack. Once she had him cornered in the tiny scullery off the kitchen, she started.

"Ron and Hermione seem to think that the three of you are dropping out of Hogwarts," she began in a light, casual tone.

"Oh," said Harry. "Well, yeah. We are."

The mangle turned off its own accord in a corner, wringing out what looked like one of Mr. Weasley's vests. While she turned to look at him with a stare and Harry looked away slightly discomforted, why was not Malfoy here when he needed him… he could pull off the military confidential stuff like the back of his hand.

"May I ask why you are abandoning your education?" said Mrs. Weasley.

"Well, Dumbledore left me . . . stuff to do," mumbled Harry. "Ron and Hermione know about it, and they want to come too."

"What sort of 'stuff '?" she asked.

"I'm sorry, I can't —" harry began but was interrupted by Mrs. Weasley.

"Well, frankly, I think Arthur and I have a right to know, and I'm sure Mr. and Mrs. Granger would agree!" said Mrs. Weasley.

Harry had been afraid of the "concerned parent" attack. He forced himself to look directly into her eyes, noticing as he did so that they were precisely the same shade of brown as Ginny's. This did not help.

"Dumbledore didn't want anyone else to know, Mrs. Weasley. I am sorry. Ron and Hermione don't have to come, it's their choice —" he answered as he looked at the sock he held in his hand… suddenly finding it interesting.

"I don't see that you have to go either!" she snapped, dropping all pretenses now. "You're barely of age, any of you! Its utter nonsense, if Dumbledore needed work doing, he had the whole Order at his command! Harry, you must have misunderstood him. Probably he was telling you something he wanted done, and you took it to mean that he wanted you —"

"I didn't misunderstand," said Harry flatly. "It's got to be me."

He handed her back the single sock he was supposed to be identifying, which was patterned with golden bulrushes. It was not his, he knew that this was a ruse to be caught alone, and he looked at Mrs. Weasley again.

"And that's not mine, I don't support Puddlemere United," he said and then sighed… he most certainly did not want to be here.

"Oh, of course not," said Mrs. Weasley with a sudden and rather unnerving return to her casual tone. "I should have realized. Well, Harry, while we still have you here, you won't mind helping with the preparations for Bill and Fleur's wedding, will you? There's still so much to do."

"No — I — of course not," said Harry, disconcerted by this sudden change of subject.

"Sweet of you," she replied, and she smiled as she left the scullery.

From that moment on, Mrs. Weasley kept Harry, Ron, and Hermione so busy with preparations for the wedding that they hardly had any time to think. The kindest explanation of this behavior would have been that Mrs. Weasley wanted to distract them all from thoughts of Mad-Eye and the terrors of their recent journey. After two days of nonstop cutlery cleaning, of color-matching favors, ribbons, and flowers, of de-gnoming the garden and helping Mrs. Weasley cook vast batches of canapés; however, Harry started to suspect her of a different motive. All the jobs she handed out seemed to keep him, Ron, and Hermione away from one another; he had not had a chance to speak to the two of them alone since

The first night, when he had told them about Voldemort torturing Ollivander. Antoine on the other hand spent his time reading the diary hoping to find out but he was having a bit of a hard time with Molly Weasley trying to corner him at every turn. He was always near harry and her thought was that he might know what the three was up too.

_There is still so sign of this RAB…. I have a feeling that the "B" stands for Black bu…._

"Hello there," said a Voice that caused Antoine to look up and then his eye twitched, for there standing over him was Molly Weasley and her infernal smile.

"Yes, May I help you?" he asked.

"You seem close to the three," said Molly Weasley. "Do you know what they are planning?"

Ah, so it was his turn to be interrogated and Antoine went back to his reading as if unconcerned, well he was new so the best card he could play was the "I don't know" card.

"I have no idea on what their plans are madame," said Antoine. "All I know is that I have to watch over Harry potter and that is all…"

"But certainly you should know something," said Molly.

"I can assure you Madame, I know nothing," said Antoine. "My job is to protect him and not get him killed."

Molly huffed and then looked at the diary that Antoine closed and pocketed and then she smiled as she placed a hand on his shoulder as well.

"Well, since you are here we can't have you idling around, how about you help us with the wedding prepations? I am sure you could use that wand of yours aside from protecting us right?" she asked with a smile.

"Madame, I wish I could answer that but I will have to decline, if I work now I would be too tired to guard over harry at night… well if that is all good day," he said and then bowed at her and then left the room.

Lunchtime was a break for them, after all, they found themselves with little to no chores, Harry was sent to clean out the chicken coop but Arthur beat him to it saying that he is hiding Sirus' broken motorcycle in the coop and he was finally free for the meantime. Hermione was supposed to change the sheets but she had done it yesterday, what a wonderful break. He and Hermione joined Ronald in their room and Antoine had entered as well.

Hermione was leafing through her trunk putting aside books and stuff and the others were watching, Antoine knew Arithmancy and stuff but a little bit about runes, they were taught in the camp. Runes could be used as protection and shielding, so they learned were battle and protection runes.

"Listen," suddenly said Harry.

He had sat up straight. Ron and Hermione looked at him with similar mixtures of resignation and defiance. Antoine took one look at them and knew that harry was giving them one last chance to back down and that included him.

"I know you said after Dumbledore's funeral that you wanted to come with me," Harry began.

"Here he goes," Ron said to Hermione, rolling his eyes.

"As we knew he would," she sighed, turning back to the books. "You know, I think I will take Hogwarts, A History. Even if we're not going back there, I don't think I'd feel right if I didn't have it with —"

"Listen!" said Harry again.

"No, Harry, you listen," said Hermione. "We're coming with you. That was decided months ago — years, really."

"Shut up," Ron advised him. "WE are going and that's final."

"But are you sure you've thought this through?" Harry persisted.

"I'm going, you see it is my duty to protect you harry," said Antoine. "I saved you one time and you could be killed in other times, no I am staying. Besides I won't abandon the mission the commander gave me."

"Let's see," said Hermione, slamming travels with Trolls onto the discarded pile with a rather fierce look. "I've been packing for days, so we're ready to leave at a moment's notice, which for your information has included doing some pretty difficult magic, not to mention smuggling Mad-Eye's whole stock of Polyjuice Potion right under Ron's mum's nose. "I have also modified my parents' memories so that they are convinced they are really called Wendell and Monica Wilkins, and that their life's ambition is to move to Australia, which they have now done. That has to make it more difficult for Voldemort to track them down and interrogate them about you, or me— because unfortunately, I have told them quite a bit about you. Assuming I survive our hunt for the Horcruxes, I will find Mum and Dad and lift the enchantment. If I do not — well, I think I have cast a good enough charm to keep them safe and happy. Wendell and Monica Wilkins don't know that they've got a daughter, you see."

Hermione's eyes were swimming with tears again. Ron got back off the bed, put his arm around her once more, and frowned at Harry as though reproaching him for lack of tact. Harry could not think of anything to say, not least because it was highly unusual for Ron to be teaching anyone else tact.

"I'm going, you see it is my duty to protect you harry," said Antoine. "I saved you one time and you could be killed in other times, no I am staying. Besides I won't abandon the mission the commander gave me."

Harry did not know what to say and he smiled, as Antoine leaned back and then looked at him, he still had not made any sense where the horcruxes were. The Malfoys were the main head in the insurrection but so far, there has been no writing, perhaps they were as clueless as this?

"What we really need to decide," said Hermione, tossing Defensive Magical Theory into the bin without a second glance and picking up An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe, "is where we're going after we leave here. I know you said you wanted to go to Godric's Hollow first, Harry, and I understand why, but . . . well . . . shouldn't we make the Horcruxes our priority?"

"If we knew where any of the Horcruxes were, I'd agree with you," said Harry, looking at Antoine who sighed as he shook his head to harry, he did not want Ron and Hermione to know he was a Malfoy from the future. "So far we've got nothing."

"Don't you think there's a possibility that Voldemort's keeping a watch on Godric's Hollow?" Hermione asked. "He might expect you to go back and visit your parents' graves once you're free to go wherever you like?"

"That could be a possibility," said Antoine. "Though I could probably take out the death eater stationed there but his silence would be obvious that you are there… if he had been giving daily reports to the inner circle... It would be a certainty that he would find out."

"The question is, how do you destroy a Horcrux?" Ron said. "This R.A.B person couldn't have done it as well."

"We would just have to trace the locket," said Harry. "And then find out where to go from there."

The silence was shattered as the bedroom door flew open with a wall-shaking crash. Hermione shrieked and dropped Secrets of the Darkest Art. Crookshanks streaked under the bed, hissing indignantly. Ron jumped off the bed, skidded on a discarded Chocolate Frog wrapper, and smacked his head on the opposite wall. Moreover, Harry instinctively dived for his wand before realizing that he was looking up at Mrs. Weasley, whose hair was disheveled and whose face was contorted with rage.

"I'm so sorry to break up this cozy little gathering," she said, her voice trembling. "I'm sure you all need your rest . . . but there are wedding presents stacked in my room that need sorting out and I was under the impression that you had agreed to help."

"Oh yes," said Hermione, looking terrified as she leapt to her feet, sending books flying in every direction, "we will . . . we're sorry . . ."

With an anguished look at Harry and Ron, Hermione hurried out of the room after Mrs. Weasley.

"It's like being a house-elf," complained Ron in an undertone, still massaging his head as he and Harry followed. "Except without the job satisfaction. The sooner this wedding's over, the happier I will

be."

"Yeah," said Harry, "then we'll have nothing to do except find Horcruxes. It'll be like a holiday, won't it?"

Ron started to laugh, but at the sight of the enormous pile of wedding presents waiting for them in Mrs. Weasley's room, stopped and stared at each other and both groaned then dived into work sorting out the wedding presents. Antoine Chuckled as he stood by the door and checked on the time, he still had some time before his shift. He would need some rest; he smiled as he turned around.

"Well, I will leave you boys alone, good luck," he called out and then left them alone.

Thank you for reading this Chapter… Please Review ((And I do mean it))

Long Authors notes:

1.) Happy Valentines everyone… this is a Double treat for you because I just celebrated my birthday last week… so as I said it's a double treat… enjoy

2.) some parts are taken from book seven... because they are basically in the same plotline...

juliannaspencer21


	3. A will, a birthday and a wedding… oh my

A Visit from the Future

Disclaimer: Hp does not belong to me it belongs to J.K. Rowlings… Antoine is mine however

Chapter 3: A will, a birthday and a wedding… oh my!

Harry's birthday dawned bright as Antoine stood at the roof looking at the sun and then he grasped the edge of the roof and then swung down and entered through the window to Ronald's room where harry was sleeping to see Ron awake and waking up harry and he sat on the windowsill watching.

Sure enough, Harry woke up with a confused look but when reminded that it was his birthday. Antoine watch as the first thing Antoine grabbed was his wand like every other seventeen-year-old teenagers.

'I wonder what spell would he use first?' he asked himself as he watched anticipating as he watched harry as he was about to cast a spell.

"Accio Glasses," he called out and they watch the glasses fly from the dresser beside him and hit him in the eye and that caused Ron and Antoine to chuckle.

Harry continued to do basic spells though the knot on his sneakers had to be untied and tied by hand. He would never have to do the tying again by a spell. However, with all the spells that Harry is doing it was amazing that the owls from the ministry have not arrived yet… and that means that the trace is finally off. They were finally free to do the horcrux mission.

"Happy birthday Harry," said Antoine as he sat up and then turned to look at Harry with a smile. "I hope Mrs. Weasleys will let you rest and prepare today, you have been busy with the wedding preparations of course."

"Doubt it," said Harry. "She is using that so that we don't have much time to plan our mission."

"Well, one could hope," said Antoine. "You, Ron and Hermione did more than everyone else here and that is saying something."

"Yeah, well, I will be happy when the wedding's finished," said Harry. "That way we can do our mission without anymore snags like this."

Antoine did not say anything; he never experienced snags like this before the mission. However, his missions were always from the military, which had to be prompt and in a have to do manner. Therefore, the snags only came during the mission not before.

"Well, let's go to the kitchen Harry, Who knows what mom have cooked for today," said Ron and then the boys headed down the stairs and into the kitchen where they saw piles of gifts for harry. In addition, they looked around. It seemed that the Delacours that arrived yesterday did not forget about him.

"Harry birthday Harry," said Molly with a smile and then turned to him. "Arthur wished me to tell you Happy Birthday, he had to leave early for work… our present is on top."

Harry grabbed it and then opened it to see a watch; Antoine noted the dent on the back and knew at once that it was a second hand. Probably form someone important to Mrs. Weasley, with the way she was looking at it.

"It's a tradition that wizards are to be given a watch when they come of age," said Molly. "Though yours is not new like Ron's it was my brother's… Fabian's… He wasn't particularly careful with his things but I hope you can accept it."

"Of Course Mrs. Weasley, thank you," he stood up and then went to hug Mrs. Weasley and then he smiled.

"Harry, here's my gift to you," said Antoine and then handed him a rectangular and then bent to whisper to him. "Though it is best if you open it in private, I wouldn't want Molly Weasley screeching to high heavens about you owning that."

Harry nodded and then placed it on the table and then went on opening his Gifts. From Bill and Fleur, he got an Enchanted Razor. From The Delacours he got boxes of Chocolate. From Antoine a book on Survival, both magical and Muggle… He turned to look at Antoine again amazed at his knowledge of the Muggle world, he knew that Malfoys would never step foot on Muggle world but this Malfoy knew a lot about Muggles… It was astounding.

Mrs. Weasley though was watching the books wondering what kind of mission they were heaving that needed those books, oh well, she would be getting to it later and went back to her cooking.

What he got from Fred and George was a huge box of their latest products and Harry smiled, these products would be very useful for their mission and he could tell that Antoine was also smiling. They could use these for diversions after all he did hear that Weasley's wizard Weezes was both magnificent and dangerous since they could use it in fights.

Hermione joined them with a box and it turned out that it was a brand new sneakoscope, very handy especially when they were on their way to do their mission. Antoine did not comment it but Mrs. Wesley was staring at them.

"Well, then since everyone is here, let's eat," said Antoine. "I'm hungry and I want to eat Mrs. Weasley's cooking."

Harry turned to look at Antoine and then chuckled as he turned to the others and Mrs. Weasley continued to cook. After that, the atmosphere turned lively again but the group did not stay that long since the table was getting crowded and Mrs. Weasley was preoccupied with serving them to notice them leave. This was a good thing for Antoine because he did not want her thinking up absurd things for them to do before the wedding.

"I will pack these things for you," said Hermione. "I'm nearly done, all I need are your underwear and we are good to go."

Both boys spluttered and Antoine looked at them, he knew he was not being talked about so he did not have the same reaction as theirs. He did have a weightless bag where his clothes were kept along with an arsenal of weapons and cartridges. He had a sniper's rifle just in case he needed to snipe someone, namely a death eater, and his money was in Gringotts. He knew Voldemort would not touch Gringotts for he had no interest in money. His eyes were always on killing Muggles.

After that, they set out preparing for Harry's birthday, even Antoine was pulled to the Decorating. Antoine looked like he did not want too but cooperated nonetheless after all it was His charges' party, a birthday was a special occasion, and he would let this slide. Antoine was outside attaching lanterns on strings on the trees and watched Hermione use charms to change the leaves gold and with the lanterns there they really looked exquisite.

"Nice, Hermione, you've got good eye for these things," said Ron. "It looks really lovely."

"Thank you Ron," said Hermione with a smile. Antoine heard that and scoffed… he was working on the same tree wasn't he? He looked at Ron and then raised his head… well they would get married in the future so he would not say anything. Climbing down from the ladder, he looked at the tree, though he had to agree the tree did look lovely and he looked at the side to see Ginny watching them, or rather harry potter.

"Out of the way, I tell you," yelled Molly Weasley and they turned to see her levitating a rather large snitch and that was when he saw that it was the cake, Antoine turned to look at Harry who had his mouth dropped open in shock… That was really a huge cake.

"Well, let's continue shall we, the sooner this party is on the way the sooner I can rest," said Antoine, then manually carried the ladder, then went to the other tree, and then started climbing it again. Harry followed with his ladder and then went to the other side to help Antoine. It was astounding to see a Malfoy hanging up lanterns, he knew Draco wouldn't even lift a finger… perhaps it was his birthday and he felt like cooperating? That has to be it.

The Group worked hard for the day until 7pm when the guests started coming in for the birthday, Remus arrived with Tonks. Tonks seemed particularly glowing while Remus looked a bit uncomfortable. Hagrid arrived with the worst suit on that Antoine had ever seen. It seemed that he skinned an animal and did not remove the fur of the poor animal and therefore it looked like a hairy/furry suit than a well-tailored one. Antoine himself was wearing an Armani suit, he looked particularly well dressed as benefited a Malfoy. He may be a Malfoy in disguise but that did not stop him from dressing well. Especially when there were guests around, Malfoys no matter what age always dressed to impress

"I must say you look nice," said Hermione. "Armani suits you."

"Thank you Miss Hermione," said Antoine. "I am happy to accept that compliment."

"What's an Armani?" Ronald asked as he came down wearing casual clothes.

"Armani is a muggle clothing line well for suits and tuxedos for special occasions that calls for formal dressing," said Harry coming in from freshening up and then looked at Antoine and nodded… He looked good for a Malfoy in a muggle suit… again A Malfoy in a muggle suit. However, he had to portray a Muggleborn wizard so wearing a muggle suit is the best way to seem to be muggleborn. "Though Armani is overkill for my party don't you think?"

"No, my father said no matter the occasion, if there are guests one must look their best," said Antoine. "And I agree; I refuse to be underdressed for the occasion."

"Right," said Harry. A Malfoy will always be a Malfoy, no matter if he is from the past, present or future. Malfoys will always be narcisstic people.

As time passed, casual talk was being passed back and forth, the four sat together on the table and Antoine was feeling a little edgy. After all he was surrounded by unknown people though he knew they were harmless, he was still aware that a death eater could sneak in. However, that was just his paranoia. He had checked everyone once they entered for glamour charms and if they were under the effect of polyjuice. So far nothing so it was all good.

"I think we'd better start without Arthur," she called to the garden at large after a moment or two. "He must have been held up at — oh!"

They all saw it at the same time: a streak of light that came flying across the yard and onto the table, where it resolved itself into a bright silver weasel, which stood on its hind legs and spoke with Mr. Weasley's voice.

"Minister of Magic coming with me," it said and then the Patronus dissolved into thin air, leaving Fleur's family peering in astonishment at the place where it had vanished.

"We shouldn't be here," said Lupin at once. "Harry — I'm sorry — I'll explain another time —"

He seized Tonks's wrist and pulled her away; they reached the fence, climbed over it, and vanished from sight. Mrs. Weasley looked bewildered. Antoine narrowed his eyes, he had a feeling that Voldemort was behind this after all the ministry would be falling to Voldemort tomorrow as stated in the diary.

"The Minister — but why — ? I don't understand —" said Mrs. Weasley as she stood up to greet the minister.

"Harry, be on your guard, the minister could be a spy for Voldemort," whispered Antoine to harry. "I will explain later."

Harry was about to ask Antoine why but there was no time to discuss the matter; a second later, Mr. Weasley had appeared out of thin air at the gate, accompanied by Rufus Scrimgeour, instantly recognizable by his mane of grizzled hair.

The two newcomers marched across the yard toward the garden and the lantern-lit table, where everybody sat in silence, watching them draw closer. As Scrimgeour came within range of the lantern light, Harry saw that he looked much older than the last time they had met, scraggy and grim.

"Sorry to intrude," said Scrimgeour, as he limped to a halt before the table. "Especially as I can see that I am gate-crashing a party."

His eyes lingered for a moment on the giant Snitch cake. Antoine narrowed his eyes and then slinked into the shadows; it would not be good for Voldemort to know that Harry had an ally like him.

"Many happy returns," he said as he stared at Harry.

"Thanks," said Harry.

"I require a private word with you," Scrimgeour went on. "Also with Mr. Ronald Weasley and Miss Hermione Granger."

"Us?" said Ron, sounding surprised. "Why us?"

"I shall tell you that when we are somewhere more private," said Scrimgeour. "Is there such a place?"

"Yes, of course," said Mr. Weasley, who looked nervous. "The, er, sitting room, why don't you use that?"

"You can lead the way," Scrimgeour said to Ron. "There will be no need for you to accompany us, Arthur."

Harry saw Mr. Weasley exchange a worried look with Mrs. Weasley as he, Ron, and Hermione stood up. As they led the way back to the house in silence, Harry knew that the other two were thinking the same as he was: Scrimgeour must, somehow, have learned that the three of them were planning to drop out of Hogwarts.

Scrimgeour did not speak as they all passed through the messy kitchen and into the Burrow's sitting room. Although the garden had been full of soft golden evening light, it was already dark in here: Harry flicked his wand at the oil lamps as he entered and they illuminated the shabby but cozy room. Scrimgeour sat himself in the sagging armchair that Mr. Weasley normally occupied, leaving Harry, Ron, and Hermione to squeeze side by side onto the sofa. Once they had done so, Scrimgeour spoke. Antoine settled on the window and then listened in ready to intervene should anything untoward happen to harry.

"I have some questions for the three of you, and I think it will be best if we do it individually. If you two" — he pointed at Harry and Hermione — "can wait upstairs, I will start with Ronald."

"We're not going anywhere," said Harry, while Hermione nodded vigorously. "You can speak to us together, or not at all."

Scrimgeour gave Harry a cold, appraising look. Harry had the impression that the Minister was wondering whether it was worthwhile opening hostilities this early.

"Very well then, together," he said, shrugging. He cleared his throat. "I am here, as I'm sure you know, because of Albus Dumbledore's will."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at one another. They were surprised that they got things from Albus Dumbledore.

"A surprise, apparently! You were not aware then that Dumbledore had left you anything?" he asked as he looked at them, he could see the surprise in their faces.

"A-all of us?" said Ron. "Me and Hermione too?"

"Yes, all of —" he started but Harry interrupted.

"Dumbledore died over a month ago. Why has it taken this long to give us what he left us?" He asked a little bit suspiciously.

"Isn't it obvious?" said Hermione, before Scrimgeour could answer. "They wanted to examine whatever he's left us. You had no right to do that!"

"I had every right," said Scrimgeour dismissively. "The Decree for Justifiable Confiscation gives the Ministry the power to confiscate the contents of a will —"

"That law was created to stop wizards passing on Dark artifacts," said Hermione, "and the Ministry is supposed to have powerful evidence that the deceased's possessions are illegal before seizing them! Are you telling me that you thought Dumbledore was trying to pass us something cursed?"

"Are you planning to follow a career in Magical Law, Miss Granger?" asked Scrimgeour.

"No, I'm not," retorted Hermione. "I'm hoping to do some good in the world!"

"So why have you decided to let us have our things now? Can't think of a pretext to keep them?" He asked as he looked at Scrigemour.

"No, it'll be because the thirty-one days are up," said Hermione at once. "They can't keep the objects longer than that unless they can prove they're dangerous. Right?"

"Would you say you were close to Dumbledore, Ronald?" asked Scrimgeour, ignoring Hermione. Ron looked startled.

"Me? Not — not really . . . It was always Harry who . . ." Ron looked around at Harry and Hermione, to see Hermione giving him a stop talking now! Sort of look, but the damage was done: Scrimgeour looked as though he had heard exactly what he had expected, and wanted, to hear. He swooped like a bird of prey upon Ron's answer.

"If you were not very close to Dumbledore, how do you account for the fact that he remembered you in his will? He made exceptionally few personal bequests. The vast majority of his possessions — his private library, his magical instruments, and other personal effects — were left to Hogwarts. Why do you think you were singled out?" He asked as he eyed Ronald.

"I . . . dunno," said Ron. "I . . . when I say we weren't close . . . I mean, I think he liked me. . . ." he said and then looked at the Minister.

"You're being modest, Ron," said Hermione. "Dumbledore was very fond of you."

This was stretching the truth to breaking point; as far as Harry knew, Ron and Dumbledore had never been alone together, and direct contact between them had been negligible. However, Scrimgeour did not seem to be listening. He put his hand inside his cloak and drew out a drawstring pouch much larger than the one Hagrid had given Harry. From it, he removed a scroll of parchment that he unrolled and read aloud.

'The Last Will and Testament of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore' . . . Yes, here we are. . . . 'To Ronald Bilius Weasley, I leave my Deluminator, in the hope that he will remember me when he uses it.' "

Scrimgeour took from the bag an object that Harry had seen before: It looked something like a silver cigarette lighter, but it had, he knew, the power to suck all light from a place, and restore it, with a simple click. Scrimgeour leaned forward and passed the Deluminator to Ron, who took it and turned it over in his fingers, looking stunned.

"That is a valuable object," said Scrimgeour, watching Ron. "It may even be unique. Certainly, it is of Dumbledore's own design. Why would he have left you an item so rare?"

Ron shook his head, looking bewildered. He looked at the Deluminator and then at the minister and then casually shrugged his shoulder.

"Dumbledore must have taught thousands of students," Scrimgeour persevered. "Yet the only ones he remembered in his will are you three. Why is that? To what use did he think you would put his Deluminator, Mr. Weasley?"

"Put out lights, I s'pose," mumbled Ron. "What else could I do with it?"

Evidently Scrimgeour had no suggestions. After squinting at Ron for a moment or two, he turned back to Dumbledore's will.

"'To Miss Hermione Jean Granger, I leave my copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, in the hope that she will find it entertaining and instructive.' "

Scrimgeour now pulled out of the bag a small book that looked as ancient as the copy of Secrets of the Darkest Art upstairs. Its binding was stained and peeling in places. Hermione took it from Scrimgeour without a word. She held the book in her lap and gazed at it. Harry saw that the title was in runes; he had never learned to read them. As he looked, a tear splashed onto the embossed symbols.

"Why do you think Dumbledore left you that book, Miss Granger?" asked Scrimgeour.

"He . . . he knew I liked books," said Hermione in a thick voice, mopping her eyes with her sleeve.

"But why that particular book?" he asked.

"I don't know. He must have thought I'd enjoy it," she answered.

"Did you ever discuss codes, or any means of passing secret messages, with Dumbledore?" he asked and Antoine scoffed, as if they could find codes in a children's book… if there were he and his team would have found out about it already.

"No, I didn't," said Hermione, still wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "And if the Ministry hasn't found any hidden codes in this book in thirty-one days, I doubt that I will."

She suppressed a sob. They were wedged together so tightly that Ron had difficulty extracting his arm to put it around Hermione's shoulders. Scrimgeour turned back to the will.

"'To Harry James Potter,' " he read, and Harry's insides contracted with a sudden excitement, "'I leave the Snitch he caught in his first Quidditch match at Hogwarts, as a reminder of the rewards of perseverance and skill.' "

As Scrimgeour pulled out the tiny, walnut-sized golden ball, its silver wings fluttered rather feebly, and Harry could not help feeling a definite sense of anticlimax.

"Why did Dumbledore leave you this Snitch?" asked Scrimgeour.

"No idea," said Harry. "For the reasons you just read out, I suppose . . . to remind me what you can get if you . . . persevere and whatever it was."

"You think this a mere symbolic keepsake, then?" He asked as he looked at harry.

"I suppose so," said Harry. "What else could it be?"

"I'm asking the questions," said Scrimgeour, shifting his chair a little closer to the sofa. Dusk was really falling outside now, the marquee beyond the windows towered ghostly white over the hedge. "I notice that your birthday cake is in the shape of a Snitch, Why is that?"

Hermione laughed derisively. How could any not know that harry is a great seeker? Everyone in the wizarding world knew he was quite good in a broom.

"Oh, it can't be a reference to the fact Harry's a great Seeker, that's way too obvious," she said. "There must be a secret message from Dumbledore hidden in the icing!"

"I don't think there's anything hidden in the icing," said Scrimgeour, "but a Snitch would be a very good hiding place for a small object. You know why, I'm sure?"

Harry shrugged. Hermione, however, answered: Harry thought that answering questions correctly was such a deeply ingrained habit she could not suppress the urge.

"Because Snitches have flesh memories," she said.

"What?" said Harry and Ron together; both considered Hermione's Quidditch knowledge negligible.

"Correct," said Scrimgeour. "A Snitch is not touched by bare skin before it is released, not even by the maker, who wears gloves. It carries an enchantment by which it can identify the first human to lay hands upon it, in case of a disputed capture. This Snitch" — he held up the tiny golden ball — "will remember your touch, Potter. It occurs to me that Dumbledore, who had prodigious magical skill, whatever his other faults, might have enchanted this Snitch so that it will open only for you."

Harry's heart was beating rather fast. He was sure that Scrimgeour was right. How could he avoid taking the Snitch with his bare hand in front of the Minister?

"You don't say anything," said Scrimgeour. "Perhaps you already know what the Snitch contains?"

"No," said Harry, still wondering how he could appear to touch the Snitch without really doing so. If only he knew Legilimency, really knew it, and could read Hermione's mind; he could practically hear her brain whirring beside him.

"Take it," said Scrimgeour quietly.

Harry met the Minister's yellow eyes and knew he had no option but to obey. He held out his hand, and Scrimgeour leaned forward again and placed the Snitch, slowly and deliberately, into Harry's palm. Antoine placed a hand on his gun that was on his side, ready to shoot should something happen yet nothing happened. As Harry's fingers closed around the Snitch, its tired wings fluttered and were still.

Scrimgeour, Ron, and Hermione continued to gaze avidly at the now partially concealed ball, as if still hoping it might transform in some way.

"That was dramatic," said Harry coolly. Both Ron and Hermione laughed. Antoine released his hold on the gun in his hand and then continued to observe.

"That's all, then, is it?" asked Hermione, making to rise herself off the sofa.

"Not quite," said Scrimgeour, who looked bad-tempered now. "Dumbledore left you a second bequest, Potter."

"What is it?" asked Harry, excitement rekindling.

Scrimgeour did not bother to read from the will this time.

"The sword of Godric Gryffindor," he said and Antoine raised his head, the sword was a legendary artifact, the Lestrage vault had the replica and the real one had not been seen in ages.

"So where is it?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"Unfortunately," said Scrimgeour, "that sword was not Dumbledore's to give away. The sword of Godric Gryffindor is an important historical artifact, and as such, belongs —"

"It belongs to Harry!" said Hermione hotly. "It chose him, he was the one who found it, it came to him out of the Sorting Hat —"

"According to reliable historical sources, the sword may present itself to any worthy Gryffindor," said Scrimgeour. "That does not make it the exclusive property of Mr. Potter, whatever Dumbledore may have decided. Why do you think —?"

"— Dumbledore wanted to give me the sword?" said Harry, struggling to keep his temper. "Maybe he thought it would look nice on my wall."

"This is not a joke, Potter!" growled Scrimgeour. "Was it because Dumbledore believed that only the sword of Godric Gryffindor could defeat the Heir of Slytherin? Did he wish to give you that sword, Potter, because he believed, as do many, that you are the one destined to destroy He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?"

"Interesting theory," said Harry. "Has anyone ever tried sticking a sword in Voldemort? Maybe the Ministry should put some people onto that, instead of wasting their time stripping down Deluminators or covering up breakouts from Azkaban. So is this what you have been doing, Minister, shut up in your office, trying to break open a Snitch? People are dying — I was nearly one of them — Voldemort chased me across three counties, he killed Mad-Eye Moody, but there's been no word about any of that from the Ministry, has there? And you still expect us to cooperate with you!"

"You go too far!" shouted Scrimgeour, standing up; Harry jumped to his feet too. Scrimgeour limped toward Harry and jabbed him hard in the chest with the point of his wand: It signed a hole in Harry's T-shirt like a lit cigarette.

"Oi!" said Ron, jumping up and raising his own wand, but Harry said, "No! D'you want to give him an excuse to arrest us?"

"Remembered you're not at school, have you?" said Scrimgeour, breathing hard into Harry's face. "Remembered that I am not Dumbledore, who forgave your insolence and insubordination? You may wear that scar like a crown, Potter, but it is not up to a seventeen year-old boy to tell me how to do my job! It's time you learned some respect!"

"I think you have overstayed your welcome minister," said Antoine as he walked into the room, he had rushed to the door when things got heated and then looked at the minister with a hard glare.

"And who are you?" he asked and Antoine turned to face the minister.

"Antoine Von Bielefeld," said Antoine.

"Von Bielefeld? That's not a Wizard's name," he said.

"Indeed, I am a Muiggleborn wizard," said Antoine. "Now please leave before you cause any more trouble to my friends."

The floor trembled; there was a sound of running footsteps, then the door to the sitting room burst open and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley ran in.

"We — we thought we heard —" began Mr. Weasley, looking thoroughly alarmed at the sight of Harry and the Minister virtually nose to nose.

"— raised voices," panted Mrs. Weasley.

Scrimgeour took a couple of steps back from Harry, glancing at the hole he had made in Harry's T-shirt. He seemed to regret his loss of temper.

"It — it was nothing," he growled. "I . . . regret your attitude,"

He looked Harry full in the face once more. Then turned to look around the spectators and then turned harry again.

"You seem to think that the Ministry does not desire what you — what Dumbledore — desired. We ought to be working together," he said looking at Harry who scoffed.

"I don't like your methods, Minister," said Harry. "Remember?"

For the second time, he raised his right fist and displayed to Scrimgeour the scars that still showed white on the back of it, spelling I must not tell lies. Scrimgeour's expression hardened. He turned away without another word and limped from the room. Mrs. Weasley hurried after him; Harry heard her stop at the back door. After a minute or so she called, "He's gone!"

"What did he want?" Mr. Weasley asked, looking around at Harry, Ron, and Hermione as Mrs. Weasley came hurrying back to them.

"To give us what Dumbledore left us," said Harry. "They've only just released the contents of his will."

Outside in the garden, over the dinner tables, the three objects Scrimgeour had given them were passed from hand to hand. Everyone exclaimed over the Deluminator and The Tales of Beedle the Bard and lamented the fact that Scrimgeour had refused to pass on the sword, but none of them could offer any suggestion as to why Dumbledore would have left Harry an old Snitch. As Mr. Weasley examined the Deluminator for the third or fourth time. It was a rather ingenious piece of magic.

Mrs. Weasley said tentatively, "Harry, dear, everyone's awfully hungry; we didn't like to start without you. . . . Shall I serve dinner now?"

They all ate rather hurriedly and then, after a hasty chorus of "Happy Birthday" and much gulping of cake, the party broke up. Hagrid, who was invited to the wedding the following day, but was far too bulky to sleep in the overstretched Burrow, left to set up a tent for himself in a neighboring field.

Antoine enjoyed the party even though he still felt guarded and his eyes did not stray from harry all through the party, after all it was his duty to guard him and guard him he did. At night, he would be returning to his room for the night, he was too tired to guard besides he needed all the energy he needed tomorrow. After all, it was the fall of ministry tomorrow, and he needed all the energy he could get.

~0~0~0~0~

"Meet us upstairs," Harry whispered to Antoine, as he passed him as Antoine was heading to the stairs for rest. . "After everyone's gone to bed."

Antoine nodded and then headed upstairs while harry and the others set off to tidy up the place. Antoine stayed in his room until everyone was asleep and joined Ron, Hermione and Harry in Ron's attic room. Ron examined his Deluminator, and Harry filled Hagrid's moleskin purse, not with gold, but with those items he most prized, apparently worthless though some of them were: the Marauder's Map, the shard of Sirius's enchanted mirror, and R.A.B.'s locket. He pulled the strings tight and slipped the purse around his neck, then sat holding the old Snitch and watching its wings flutter feebly. At last, Hermione tapped on the door and tiptoed inside.

"Muffliato," she whispered, waving her wand in the direction of the stairs. Antoine noted that it was one of Severus' spells that was used again.

"Thought you didn't approve of that spell?" said Ron.

"Times change," said Hermione. "Now, show us that Deluminator."

Ron obliged at once. Holding it up in front of him, he clicked it. The solitary lamp they had lit went out at once.

"The thing is," whispered Hermione through the dark, "we could have achieved that with Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder."

There was a small click, and the ball of light from the lamp flew back to the ceiling and illuminated them all once more.

"Still, its cool," said Ron, a little defensively. "And from what they said, Dumbledore invented it himself!"

"I know, but surely he wouldn't have singled you out in his will just to help us turn out the lights!" said Hermione indignantly wondering why Dumbledore would be giving such a thing.

"D'you think he knew the Ministry would confiscate his will and examine everything he'd left us?" asked Harry.

"Definitely," said Hermione. "He couldn't tell us in the will why he was leaving us these things, but that still doesn't explain . . ."

". . . Why he couldn't have given us a hint when he was alive?" asked Ron.

"Well, exactly," said Hermione, now flicking through The Tales of Beedle the Bard. "If these things are important enough to pass on right under the nose of the Ministry, you'd think he'd have let us know why . . . unless he thought it was obvious?"

"Thought wrong, then, didn't he?" said Ron. "I always said he was mental. Brilliant and everything, but cracked. Leaving Harry an old Snitch — what the hell was that about?"

"I've no idea," said Hermione. "When Scrimgeour made you take it, Harry, I was so sure that something was going to happen!"

"Yeah, well," said Harry, his pulse quickening as he raised the Snitch in his fingers. "I wasn't going to try too hard in front of Scrimgeour, was I?"

"What do you mean?" asked Hermione.

"The Snitch I caught in my first ever Quidditch match?" said Harry. "Don't you remember?"

Hermione looked simply bemused. Ron, however, gasped, pointing frantically from Harry to the Snitch and back again until he found his voice.

"That was the one you nearly swallowed!" he yelled and Antoine looked at the Snitch and at Harry and smirked… interesting, their skin alone had different types of skin, what he just heard made things interesting.

"Exactly," said Harry, and with his heart beating fast, he pressed his mouth to the Snitch. It did not open. Frustration and bitter disappointment welled up inside him: He lowered the golden sphere, but then Hermione cried out.

"Writing! There's writing on it, quick, look!" She cried and all of them craned to see and they saw these words. "I open at the close." He had barely read them when the words vanished again.

" 'I open at the close . . .' What's that supposed to mean?" he asked and then looked at Antoine who was just as puzzled as well… this wasn't written in the diary so he had no idea what it was as well. Hermione and Ron shook their heads, looking blank.

"I open at the close . . . at the close . . . I open at the close . . ." they started to say… well only Ron, Hermione and harry. Antoine was too dignified to recite as well. However, no matter how often they repeated the words, with many different inflections, they were unable to wring any more meaning from them.

"And the sword," said Ron finally, when they had at last abandoned their attempts to divine meaning in the Snitch's inscription. "Why did he want Harry to have the sword?"

"And why couldn't he just have told me?" Harry said quietly. "It was there, it was right there on the wall of his office during all our talks last year! If he wanted me to have it, why didn't he just give it to me then?"

He felt as though he were sitting in an examination with a question that he ought to have been able to answer in front of him, his brain slow and unresponsive. Was there something he had missed in the long talks with Dumbledore last year? Ought he to know what it all meant? Had Dumbledore expected him to understand?

"And as for this book," said Hermione, "The Tales of Beedle the Bard . . . I've never even heard of them!"

"You've never heard of The Tales of Beedle the Bard?" said Ron incredulously. "You're kidding, right?"

"No, I'm not!" said Hermione in surprise. "Do you know them, then?"

"Well, of course I do!" he called out and Antoine lowered his head. He as a "Muggleborn" should not know what it was as well.

Harry looked up, diverted. The circumstance of Ron having read a book that Hermione had not was unprecedented. Ron, however, looked bemused by their surprise.

"Oh come on! All the old kids' stories are supposed to be Beedle's, aren't they? 'The Fountain of Fair Fortune' . . . 'The Wizard and the Hopping Pot' . . . 'Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump' . . ." he said and then started reciting all the stories that was written there.

"Excuse me?" said Hermione, giggling. "What was that last one?

"Come off it!" said Ron, looking in disbelief from Harry to Hermione. "You must've heard of Babbitty Rabbitty —"

"Ron, you know full well Harry and I were brought up by Muggles!" said Hermione. "We didn't hear stories like that when we were little, we heard 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' and 'Cinderella' —"

"What's that, an illness?" asked Ron clearly puzzled and Antoine started to shake his laughter, oh, this was getting very amusing.

"So these are children's stories?" asked Hermione, bending again over the runes.

"Yeah," said Ron uncertainly, "I mean, that's just what you hear, you know, that all these old stories came from Beedle. I dunno what they're like in the original versions."

"But I wonder why Dumbledore thought I should read them?" She asked as she opened the book. Something creaked downstairs. In addition, Antoine went for the gun that never left his side and they all froze.

"Probably just Charlie, now Mum's asleep, sneaking off to regrow his hair," said Ron nervously.

"All the same, we should get to bed," whispered Hermione. "It wouldn't do to oversleep tomorrow."

"No," agreed Ron. "A brutal triple murder by the bridegroom's mother might put a bit of a damper on the wedding. I'll get the lights."

In addition, he clicked the Deluminator once more as Hermione left and Antoine took one look at the darkness and then left the room as well.

~0~0~0~0~

The day started busy with the place going haywire in preparation for the wedding, Antoine had been feeling antsy the whole day. Even he was wearing a tuxedo for the wedding he had hidden a few knives and his guns in his tuxedo, so even when he was well dressed he was ready to kill at a moment's notice. After all, he knew what day it is today.

At 3pm harry, Hermione, Antoine, Ron, Fred and George were waiting for the guests from France, and usher them to the seats and they started seeing them coming and they saw that it was Fleur's relatives that were arriving first.

"Ohh, I'll serve them," said George but Fred grabbed him by the collar to stop him.

"Not so fast your holeyness," he said but Antoine was faster on the draw.

"Bonjour mademoiselles, permettez-moi du assister vous," he called out in prefect French and the women giggled and Antoine offered them his elbows and assisted them to their seats and when he returned back he smirked at them. "Women always prefer to be someone with class."

'Spoken like a true Malfoy,' Thought Harry with an awkward laugh.

They continued to usher people inside and soon they were inside and all that was left to greet the Lovegoods… Antoine raised his eyebrow; in his time, the lovegoods were normal people… normal in the sense that they do not look weird or act weird.

"Xenophilius Lovegood," he said, extending a hand to Harry, "my daughter and I live just over the hill, so kind of the good Weasleys to invite us. But I think you know my Luna?"

"Yes," said Ron. "Isn't she with you?"

"She lingered in that charming little garden to say hello to the gnomes, such a glorious infestation! How few wizards realize just how much we can learn from the wise little gnomes — or, to give them their correct name, the Gernumbli gardensi," He said and Antoine had to look away as he was finding this lovegood rather weird. Ron led a party of wizards into the marquee as Luna rushed up.

"Hello, Harry!" she said.

"Er — my name's Barny," said Harry, flummoxed. As Antoine stared at her with surprise in his face.

"Oh, have you changed that too?" she asked brightly.

"How did you know — ?" he asked

"Oh, just your expression," she said and then turned to look at Antoine who froze. "Why is a malf-"

"Shh," said Antoine as he covered her mouth quickly and then looked at her. "You are not to say that name out loud in my vicinity understand."

After that, they all settled and let the wedding take over and then they settled down on the seats and they watched as Fleur walked down the aisle and then approached Bill and the wedding took place.

". . . then I declare you bonded for life." Said the officiator that signified the end of the event and they all clapped. The tufty-haired wizard waved his wand high over the heads of Bill and Fleur and a shower of silver stars fell upon them, spiraling around their now entwined figures. As Fred and George led a round of applause, the golden balloons overhead burst: Birds of paradise and tiny golden bells flew and floated out of them, adding their songs and chimes to the din.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" called the tufty-haired wizard. "If you would please stand up!"

They all did so, Auntie Muriel grumbling audibly; he waved his wand again. The seats on which they had been sitting rose gracefully into the air as the canvas walls of the marquee vanished, so that they stood beneath a canopy supported by golden poles, with a glorious view of the sunlit orchard and surrounding countryside.

Next, a pool of molten gold spread from the center of the tent to form a gleaming dance floor; the hovering chairs grouped themselves around small, white-clothed tables, which all floated gracefully back to earth around it, and the golden-jacketed band trooped toward a podium.

"Smooth," said Ron approvingly as the waiters popped up on all sides, some bearing silver trays of pumpkin juice, butterbeer, and firewhisky, others tottering piles of tarts and sandwiches.

"We should go and congratulate them!" said Hermione, standing on tiptoe to see the place where Bill and Fleur had vanished amid a crowd of well-wishers.

"We'll have time later," shrugged Ron, snatching three butterbeers from a passing tray and handing one to Harry. "Hermione, cop hold, let's grab a table. . . . Not there! Nowhere near Muriel —"

However, Antoine stopped them with a raise f his hand a look of Determination appeared on his face in a few hours the ministry would fall, they should not be here, after all. If the ministry would fall, the aurors or death eaters would come here to look for harry, after all Voldemort wanted Harry dead…. Killing him would be easy especially when harry was arrested by the ministry.

"We have to go," said Antoine. "I will explain when I have the chance, but we should not tally here… the ministry knows you are here."

"What, why would the ministry go after harry?" Hermione asked. "Is it because of what he said?"

"No, it's something else entirely," said Antoine. "It will happen in a few hours… we have to be gone now before it happens."

"And what are you doing?" called out Mrs. Weasley. "You are needed at the Reception hurry."

She grabbed Harry's and Ron's arms before dragging them to the reception and Antoine sighed, as he had to follow. His things were ready and they were all ready to leave at a moment's notice. The time passed by and Antoine noted that Mrs. Weasley always had Ron and harry by her side and all seemed to be futile. Antoine kept checking his watch for the time and watched as it went nearer and nearer until…

"What was that? A patronus?" asked one of the guests and then Antoine looked at the patronus with dread… he knew that the words that would be uttered by that would make him move quickly.

"The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming." It said and Antoine closed his eyes. It was time. He turned and then he forcibly took Ron and Harry from Mrs. Weasley and then turned to her. "I apologize Mrs. Weasley but it's time for us to go."

And with that all three of them went in search for Hermione just as sounds of apparition appeared and Antoine drew his gun, here it was the attack of the death eaters on their place to try and capture harry potter… not on his watch.

"Let's go, we don't have much time," he yelled as he shot at the death eaters and went to search for Hermione or rather she found them. He grabbed hold of them and together they disapparated from the place to who knows where.

Thank you for reading this Chapter… Please review, a great review will keep me going. Thank you

Long Authors notes:

1.) Well, here you are another chapter, I hope you liked it…

juliannaspencer21


	4. A place of solitude

A Visit from the Future

Disclaimer: Hp does not belong to me it belongs to J.K. Rowlings… Antoine is mine however

Chapter 4: A place of solitude

When they apparated they landed in an alleyway, Antoine let go of the others, then leaned on the wall, and then looked at them. So far, they were still alive and safe, though they were still dressed for the wedding. Hermione was still in her gown and the boys were still in their dress robes.

"Where are we?" said Ron as he looked up. Harry squinted and Antoine noted that the potion was beginning to wear off.

"In an alleyway in the muggle world," said Antoine. "Come we must look for a place for you to change, perhaps a hotel or a restaurant."

They walked into the sidewalk in a brisk pace and ignored the people gawking at them, some of the people were laughing at their fashion. Children pointed at them and their Mothers pulled them away telling their children to stay away from crazy people like them.

"Hermione, we haven't got anything to change into," Ron told her, as a young woman burst into raucous giggles at the sight of him.

"Why didn't I make sure I had the Invisibility Cloak with me?" said Harry, inwardly cursing his own stupidity. "All last year I kept it on me and —"

"It's okay, I've got the Cloak, I've got clothes for both of you," said Hermione. "Just try and act naturally until we arrive."

Hermione looked at Antoine as he walked and then spotted a particularly shady alleyway that was covered by a phone booth that had hazy windows and then nodded that will do.

"This will do, go on change," said Antoine and then went to guard them as they changed to their normal clothes though harry was under the invisibility cloak. When they were finished, Antoine himself changed to jeans and a shirt, joined them, and then motioned to them to come, it would be good for them to get something to eat since they did not have time to eat during the reception trying to find ways to escape.

Antoine found a slightly packed restaurant, then looked around it was a perfect place to hide from the death eaters in plain sight. After all, they had the stature of secrecy and would not be, he opened the door and then they walked in and the Waiter walked to them and then bowed.

"Good evening sir, may I help you?" he asked.

"Yes, we would like to dine in one of your private rooms," said Antoine. "Could you prepare one for us?"

"Of course sir, "said the man warily, because they were only Seventeen year olds and wondered if they had money to pay for the food he had to inform the manager quickly. "This way sir."

The waiter led them to their smallest private room and then let them sit down and then Antoine leaned back and then watched the Waiter; he accepted the menu and then perused it. After Telling what he wanted and had mentioned Harry's order and the others turned to him, as the door left and Antoine looked around for a CCTV and saw that it was still off.

"You can remove the cloak harry before they open the CCTV to keep an eye on us," said Antoine and harry removed it. "Now to get onto business."

"You know, we're not far from the Leaky Cauldron here, it's only in Charing Cross —" said Ron

"Ron, we can't!" said Hermione at once.

"Not to stay there, but to find out what's going on!" he answered.

"We know what's going on! The dark lord's taken over the Ministry, what else do we need to know?" said Harry and then Antoine blinked and then looked at the door he knew the taboo was already in place.

"Okay, okay, it was just an idea!" said Ron.

"We are not safe here," said Antoine. "As he went to his seat. The dark lord knows that we are in the muggle world."

"What how?" Ron asked as he looked at Antoine.

Antoine however raised his hand and then watched as two men entered the Restaurant and then he smiled, he knew they were hidden and there were many Muggles around. They did not want to expose themselves to the muggle world the stature of secrecy was there for a reason after all.

"Later," said Antoine and then went back to his seat and heard the whir of the CCTV come on, he smiled as he sat down, it was better. He watched as another man served them the food and Antoine knew that it was the manager disguised as the waiter.

As they were eating Antoine kept an eye on the door, he knew they were looking for them and then smirked as he continued to eat. After eating Antoine pulled out his wallet, then looked at the CCTV, and then waived at it to summon the manager disguised as the waiter

"May I be of assistance," said the manager.

"Yes, could you call us a Taxi?" said Antoine as he looked into the bill and then counted out the desired bill and then handed it over. "We will be heading home. One will do."

He smiled as the manager blinked and then nodded, and went to call him and then Antoine leaned back, those death eaters would not be doing anything in front of these muggles and they had at least five minutes to discuss.

"Well, since we are full and waiting for the taxi I will tell you this," said Antoine. "The moment the ministry fell to the dark lord, he placed a taboo on the use of his name. Meaning whoever uses his name will be traced… there are two death eaters waiting outside in the public part of the restaurant for us. That is why I called for the cab. I doubt they know how to use one."

Harry, Ron and Hermione stiffened when they heard that and smiled, he could easily take care of those two, silently in the alleyway. However, he would not do that so soon, after all the CCTV recorded their faces, he did not want to be wanted in both the wizarding and muggle worlds as well.

The manager told them that the Cab had arrived and they all stood up and then headed to the entrance he spotted the two death eaters stand up and then smiled as he tried to follow them only to be stopped by the waiter who told them that they could not leave without paying.

Antoine and the others exited and boarded the taxi along with Ron, Hermione and harry and Antoine closed the door, then turned to the driver, and then mentioned them to drive away before mentioning "Richmonde Hotel."

Once they arrived and Antoine booked them two rooms, one for Hermione and one deluxe room for them, since the deluxe had two rooms. They were staying there for overnight while they actually plan what they were going to do. The one paying was Antoine. Once in the boy's room, Antoine turned around and then looked at them and then he looked at them all and then nodded.

"Now here are a few rules," said Antoine. "No V word anywhere… that will just call out the death eaters. If you need something in the wizarding towns use me, I know ways to infiltrate without people knowing. Also use magic only when necessary… in both worlds, death eaters are aware when magic is used and most probably know your magical signatures and also we can't break the stature of secrecy."

The golden trio nodded and then looked at each other, if Antoine was here they would be running around by now. Antoine sat on the chair and then looked at them; well the rules have been set it was time for them to rest before going in search for the horcruxes.

Once everyone was asleep, Antoine settled down onto the chair with the lamp light in tow, then looked at the diary, and then leafed it. There were many "B" surnames in the wizarding world. Bagshot, Black, Bagwind, Bogtrot… and so on, he could not possibly start investigating all those surnames for this R.A.B character. Well it would not hurt to consult the diary. He was reading until he came across this page.

December 2002

_We found him! This RAB Character, as I knew it he was a black. Regulus Arcturus Black! It makes sense, from what my mother told me Regulus was a death eater but he was backing out of it and he was wiped out. Well we know who it is but the question is it still in Grimmauld place? No one has been there in years. Well we did try only to find that most of the valuables were stolen. The house elf Kreacher was killed obviously protecting the house. We could not find the locket, the thief probably took it. We took one…._

Antoine woke up to the sun shining on his face and he groaned as he sat up and then closed the diary, well at least they had a clue to the locket. They had to hurry before Grimmauld's things were completely stolen. He stood up and then placed the diary on his pocket and entered his room. He would need to freshen up before ordering food for them before talking to harry what he found out.

When harry and Ron joined Antoine there was a steaming plate of English breakfast and Antoine was enjoying a cup of tea his plate already finished, Hermione was having breakfast in her room as Antoine had someone deliver hers and then he stood up and then looked at harry and motioned him to come with him. In addition, Harry complied while Ron continued to wolf down the food.

"What is it?" harry asked as he looked at Antoine.

"I found out who this RAB character is," said Antoine.

Harry opened his wide eyes and then stared at Antoine; perhaps it is beneficial to have someone from the future after all. This would make this mission easier after all, they would not be running around like Headless chickens but they would be running after a goal.

"Really who is it?" he asked.

"It's Regulus Black…. You need to steer your friends to Grimmauld place," said Antoine as he looked at him and saw Harry frown.

"Why would I do that?" he asked.

"Because in the future that house would be infiltrated and be wiped out of everything valuable," said Antoine. "The locket wasn't found at that time."

"Why don't you suggest it?" he asked curiously and Antoine stared at Harry as if he was crazy.

"Are you kidding me?" he asked. "I am not supposed to know these things… I cannot say that and have them guess that I am from the future. The less the people who know that I am the future the more I can be an asset to help you and protect you."

"Alright, alright, I will do it," said harry. "I will let the others know."

Antoine and harry nodded and then they dispersed and Antoine looked outside on the street to see people walking by, it seemed innocent enough. He saw Harry return to his food and Antoine went to turn on the television to see if the muggle world was still oblivious to the magical world.

Hermione soon knocked on the door and it opened to let her in and then went to the television watching the news, Harry looked at them, then cleared his throat, and then looked at his friends and they looked at him.

"I think we may have to go to Grimmauld place," said Harry and then they blanched as they stared at him.

"Grimmauld, why?" Hermione asked. "Don't you think that death eaters will be hiding in there?"

"Yes and no," said Harry. "But I have a feeling we will find this RAB character in there…. I have a feeling that the "B" surname is a Black, I want to look at the Black tapestry for the name."

"But harry what if it was burnt out like Sirius'," Ron asked.

"Well we can find a Genealogy book in the black library," said Antoine. "No one can tear off pages in those books and you can find what you need in there. Every Pureblood family has them."

"And how would you know this?" Hermione asked and then Antoine paused and then looked at them and then blinked.

"My mother worked in the ministry updating the Genealogies of the family," said Antoine. "She was one of the employees that were allowed to update family records in the books, though she did until she died."

Died was an understatement, Antoine's mother was killed by muggles during the muggle/wizarding war. The muggles found out about his mother's work and wanted the list of all witches and wizards; they kidnapped her and tortured her for information. Antoine's team managed to infiltrate the location where she was killing everyone silently as they went on but they were too late the damage was too severe and she died in Antoine's arms when they managed to get to her. Antoine was only 14 years old at that time; he was not a lieutenant then but one of the soldiers in the Special Forces. The muggles never did get hold of the books luckily for them.

"If you want I can go in and looked around the place," said Antoine. "That way everything will be safe."

"That would be a good idea," said Harry. "Though you don't know where it is."

"I'm sure you can show me the way, harry," said Antoine to him.

Therefore, it was decided that they would be heading to Grimmauld place probably tonight in the shelter of night, this left Antoine plenty to do. He looked outside and then smiled; oh, it would be a fine time to rile up the death eaters. He stood up and then headed to his room and took out his sniper rifle and hid it in a golf bag and headed to the door.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Outside," said Antoine. "I will just take a walk, alright? Stay with the others alright Harry."

Antoine walked out of the hotel and then walked to the park and then walked around and then smiled when he saw a teenager there and waived him over.

"Hey kid, wanna earn 500 bucks?" he asked.

"What do I have to do?" the kid asked.

"Just say the word I give you out loud okay, the first word on the message okay?" Antoine said as he wrote a message on the paper on a paper, folded it so that he can only see one word and then handed it over to him along with the money. "Oh wait for an hour before doing that, but you have to say it here okay? And don't forget to throw the paper away."

"Sure," said the man and then Antoine smiled as he turned around and then headed to a building and then set his rifle up on the roof facing the park and looked through the scope.

He saw the boy look into the paper and then he smiled when he heard him mouth the word "The dark lord" and he smiled, now to wait for the death eaters to come. Sure enough, they arrived, they looked around a paper landed on their boot and one of the death eaters picked it up, then looked at the word, and then panicked.

Antoine pressed the trigger and shot one of the Death eaters on the head and the death eater fell down, the other death eater bent down, shook his partner, picked up the paper in his partner's hand, then looked at it and panicked. Moreover, before Antoine could shoot again disapparated with the dead Death eater and he pulled his rifle back and smiled.

'Message Delivered,' he said in his mind and then walked back.

What that message was:

_The dark lord_

_This is your first warning, stay away from Potter, If not I will wage war against you, your death eaters will fall one by one by my hand._

_Sincerely Ghost_

_Ps. Fine weather we are having aren't we? Well to me it is, Good day Voldy-dung._

When he arrived at the hotel room harry was on his knees with a hand on his head and then his friends were there and Antoine went to him.

"What happened?" he asked.

"The dark lord's angry about something," said Harry. "What I saw was that he was walking about muttering about assassins or snipers... and something about Ghost"

Antoine forced his face to remain neutral, at least the dark lord was riled up from what he did, and he stood up. Though harry was looking at him and then he looked back at him and then stood up and took Antoine's hand and then turned to Ron and Hermione.

"Excuse me for a minute okay," said Harry, then pulled Malfoy to his room, and then muttered muffliato. "Why did you do that?"

"Did what?" asked Antoine but Harry will not have any of it but opened the Gold back to show the rifle and he looked at Antoine who sighed. "Alright I did it, but it's more to divert his attention from you to his dying death eaters."

"If you have to do it, don't do it in the muggle world," said Harry. "Do it in the wizarding world, that way you can scare the death eaters."

"Fine I will, it will scare the people after all," said Antoine with a smile. "That will cause the young people to stop following the dark lord, that is perfect harry. Absolutely perfect."

He had not thought of that, what better way than to scare the death eaters than to show their corpse out in public. He could do that at night, when the death eaters were prowling about. He already had one plan.

That night they arrived in Grimmauld place and after being shown the place, Antoine opened the door gun ready to fire, then entered with Harry Potter on his back, and then walked around. The place seemed to be empty and from what Antoine could see ransacked… perhaps the burglary had already happened?

As Harry closed the door behind them, the old-fashioned gas lamps sprang into life, casting flickering light along the length of the hallway. It looked just as Harry remembered it: eerie, cobwebbed, the outlines of the house-elf heads on the wall throwing odd shadows up the staircase. Long dark curtains concealed the portrait of Sirius's mother. The only thing that was out of place was the troll's leg umbrella stand, which was lying on its side as if Tonks had just knocked it over again.

"I think somebody's been in here," Hermione whispered, pointing toward it.

"That could've happened as the Order left," Ron murmured back.

"So where are these jinxes they put up against Snape?" Harry asked.

"Maybe they're only activated if he shows up?" suggested Ron.

Yet they remained close together on the doormat, backs against the door, scared to move farther into the house. Antoine sighed as he continued walking on. Did they know that in instances where he wanted to make sure that the place was secure they had to do it silently not talk normally? Oh well…

"Well, we can't stay here forever," said Harry, and he took a step forward.

"Severus Snape?" called a voice and Antoine pointed his gun across the hall yet no one approached.

Mad-Eye Moody's voice whispered out of the darkness, making all three of them jump back in fright.

"We're not Snape!" croaked Harry, before something whooshed over him as if cold air and his tongue curled backward on itself, making it impossible to speak. Before he had time to feel inside his mouth, however, his tongue had unraveled again. The others seemed to have experienced the same unpleasant sensation. Ron was making retching noises. Antoine hand a hand on his throat, was leaning on the wall gun on his other hand, and was looking very uncomfortable.

"That m-must have b-been the T-Tongue-Tying Curse that Mad-Eye set up for Snape!" she said.

Antoine took one-step and then pointed his gun at the thing that shifted and glared at it, one thing he learned that if you got afraid of something he would fight it. And he looked at the thing. It was a figure had risen up out of the carpet, tall, dust colored, and terrible. Hermione screamed and so did Mrs. Black, her curtains flying open, the gray figure was gliding toward them, faster and faster, its waist-length hair and beard streaming behind it. Its face sunken, fleshless, with empty eye sockets: Horribly familiar, dreadfully altered, it raised a wasted arm, pointing at Antoine.

"No!" Harry shouted, and though he had raised his wand, no spell occurred to him. "No! It was not us! We didn't kill you —"

On the word kill, the figure exploded in a great cloud of dust: Coughing, his eyes watering, Harry looked around to see Hermione crouched on the floor by the door with her arms over her head, and Ron, who was shaking from head to foot, patting her clumsily on the shoulder and saying, "It's all r-right. . . . It's g-gone. . . ."

Dust swirled around Harry like mist, catching the blue gaslight, as Mrs. Black continued to scream. Antoine pocketed his gun after a while knowing that there was no one in the house after all they would have been alerted by Hermione's scream and Mrs. Black's yelling.

"There is no one here but it would be goo enough to check magic wise," said Antoine removing his wand and then raised it. "Homenum Revelio."

Nothing happened and as Antoine suspected there was no one in this place and he nodded to them and then relaxed and looked around. Harry went to the family tapestry and was looking at the names when Hermione shrieked and Antoine drew his wand and then pointed at the Silver patronus and saw that harry had done the same.

"Family safe, do not reply, we are being watched," said the voice of Ron's father and Antoine saw them breathe a sigh of relief, he looked at them and then returned his wand to his body and then headed to the kitchen to make some tea. While Harry was heading upstairs to search to spend some time before he could tell Ron and Hermione his "Discovery".

After ten minutes, Antoine joined them to see Harry running down the stairs, then stopped in front of them, and then looked up. Antoine had his eyebrow raised and Ron and Hermione was looking at Harry as if he had a second head.

"I found him," said Harry. "I found out who this RAB character might be."

Harry threw down a sign onto a table, they all stared at the sign to see what it was written, and there in plain sight was the RAB person.

Do Not Enter

Without the Express Permission of

Regulus Arcturus Black

"Sirius's brother?" Hermione whispered as he looked from the sign towards Harry, Antoine calmly took his cup of tea and sipped it.

"He was a Death Eater," said Harry, "Sirius told me about him, he joined up when he was really young and then got cold feet and tried to leave — so they killed him."

"That fits!" gasped Hermione. "If he was a Death Eater he had access to the dark lord, and if he became disenchanted, then he would have wanted to bring the dark lord down!"

"What? That was Sirius's brother, wasn't it? The locket — you don't reckon — ?" Ron said and then looked at them.

"Let's find out," said Harry.

They all went up the stairs and to the door where the sign came from and harry tried the door only to find that it was locked. Antoine pulled out his wand and did an Alohomora, the door opened, and they all filed inside ready to look for the lost locket.

They moved over the threshold together, gazing around. Regulus's bedroom was slightly smaller than Sirius's, though it had the same sense of former grandeur. Whereas Sirius had sought to advertise his difference from the rest of the family, Regulus had striven to emphasize the opposite. The Slytherin colors of emerald and silver were everywhere, draping the bed, the walls, and the windows. The Black family crest was painstakingly painted over the bed, along with its motto, Toujours Pur. Beneath this was a collection of yellow newspaper cuttings, all stuck together to make a ragged collage. Hermione crossed the room to examine them.

"They're all about the dark lord," she said. "Regulus seems to have been a fan for a few years before he joined the Death Eaters."

A little puff of dust rose from the bedcovers as she sat down to read the clippings. Harry, meanwhile, had noticed another photograph; a Hogwarts Quidditch team was smiling and waving out of the frame. He moved closer and saw the snakes emblazoned on their chests: Slytherins. Regulus was instantly recognizable as the boy sitting in the middle of the front row: He had the same dark hair and slightly haughty look of his brother, though he was smaller, slighter, and rather less handsome than Sirius had been.

"He played Seeker," said Harry.

"What?" said Hermione vaguely; she was still immersed in the dark lord's press clippings.

"He's sitting in the middle of the front row, that's where the Seeker . . . Never mind," said Harry, realizing that nobody was listening: Ron was on his hands and knees, searching under the wardrobe. Harry looked around the room for likely hiding places and approached the desk. Yet again, somebody had searched before them. The drawers' contents had been turned over recently, the dust disturbed, but there was nothing of value there: old quills, out of- date textbooks that bore evidence of being roughly handled, a recently smashed inkbottle, its sticky residue covering the contents of the drawer.

"I don't think that it is here," said Antoine after checking the bookshelf and the books (to see if they were the type of books that you can keep things in).

"There's an easier way," said Hermione, as Harry wiped his inky fingers on his jeans. She raised her wand and said, "Accio Locket!"

Nothing happened. Ron, who had been searching the folds of the faded curtains, looked disappointed.

"Is that it, then? It's not here?" Said Ron with a sigh.

"Oh, it could still be here, but under counter-enchantments," said Hermione. "Charms to prevent it being summoned magically, you know."

"Like The dark lord put on the stone basin in the cave," said Harry, remembering how he had been unable to summon the fake locket.

"How are we supposed to find it then?" asked Ron.

"We search manually," said Antoine as he rolled up his sleeves ready to get dirty for the sake of the search.

"That's a good idea," said Ron, rolling his eyes, and he resumed his examination of the curtains.

They combed every inch of the room for more than an hour, but were forced, finally, to conclude that the locket was not there. The sun had risen now; its light dazzled them even through the grimy landing windows. Antoine went to look for a sink to wash his hands off the dirt, after all if he needed to use his guns he would need to have clean hands so he did not have to work hard to clean it.

"It could be somewhere else in the house, though," said Hermione in a rallying tone as they walked back downstairs. As Harry and Ron had become more discouraged, she seemed to have become more determined.

"Whether he'd managed to destroy it or not, he'd want to keep it hidden from the dark lord, wouldn't he? Remember all those awful things we had to get rid of when we were here last time? That clock that shot bolts at everyone and those old robes that tried to strangle Ron; Regulus might have put them there to protect the locket's hiding place, even though we didn't realize it at . . . at . . ." she paused

Harry and Ron looked at her. She was standing with one foot in midair, with the dumbstruck look of one who had just been Obliviated; her eyes had even drifted out of focus.

". . . at the time," she finished in a whisper.

"Something wrong?" asked Ron.

"There was a locket," she said and then turned to look at them.

"What?" said Harry and Ron together.

"In the cabinet in the drawing room. Nobody could open it. And we . . . we . . ." Hermione could not finish that sentence however Ron and Harry realized what she was talking about. Harry felt as though a brick had slid down through his chest into his stomach. He remembered: He had even handled the thing as they passed it around, each trying in turn to prise it open. It had been tossed into a sack of rubbish, along with the snuffbox of Wartcap powder and the music box that had made everyone sleepy.

"Kreacher nicked loads of things back from us," said Harry. It was the only chance, the only slender hope left to them, and he was going to cling to it until forced to let go. "He had a whole stash of stuff in his cupboard in the kitchen. C'mon."

He ran down the stairs taking two steps at a time, the other two thundering along in his wake. They made so much noise that they woke the portrait of Sirius's mother as they passed through the hall. Though Antoine threw a wandless spell to close the curtains that covered her and continued to follow Harry to wherever he was going.

Harry ran the length of the room, skidded to a halt at the door of Kreacher's cupboard, and wrenched it open. There was the nest of dirty old blankets in which the house-elf had once slept, but they were no longer glittering with the trinkets Kreacher had salvaged. The only thing there was an old copy of Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy (Which Antoine took just for reference). Refusing to believe his eyes, Harry snatched up the blankets and shook them. A dead mouse fell out and rolled dismally across the floor. Ron groaned as he threw himself into a kitchen chair; Hermione closed her eyes. Antoine looked a bit repulsed by that and leaned on the wall to let them do the talking.

"It's not over yet," said Harry, and he raised his voice and called, "Kreacher!"

There was a loud crack and the house-elf that Harry had so reluctantly inherited from Sirius appeared out of nowhere in front of the cold and empty fireplace: tiny, half human-sized, his pale skin hanging off him in folds, white hair sprouting copiously from his batlike ears. He was still wearing the filthy rag in which they had first met him, and the contemptuous look he gave Harry showed that his attitude to his change of ownership had altered no more than his outfit.

"Master," croaked Kreacher in his bullfrog's voice, and he bowed low, muttering to his knees, "back in my Mistress's old house with the blood-traitor Weasley and the Mudblood —"

"I forbid you to call anyone 'blood traitor' or 'Mudblood,' " growled Harry. He would have found Kreacher, with his snoutlike nose and bloodshot eyes, a distinctly unlovable object even if the elf had not betrayed Sirius to The dark lord.

"I've got a question for you," said Harry, his heart beating rather fast as he looked down at the elf, "and I order you to answer it truthfully. Understand?"

"Yes, Master," said Kreacher, bowing low again. Harry saw his lips moving soundlessly, undoubtedly framing the insults he was now forbidden to utter.

"Two years ago," said Harry, his heart now hammering against his ribs, "there was a big gold locket in the drawing room upstairs. We threw it out. Did you steal it back?"

There was a moment's silence, during which Kreacher straightened up to look Harry full in the face. Then he said, "Yes."

"Where is it now?" asked Harry jubilantly as Ron and Hermione looked gleeful. Antoine who was studying Kreacher's reaction did not give any reaction as he was waiting for his answer.

Kreacher closed his eyes as though he could not bear to see their reactions to his next word. "Gone."

"Gone?" echoed Harry, elation flooding out of him. "What do you mean, it's gone?"

The elf shivered. He swayed.

"Kreacher," said Harry fiercely, "I order you —"

"Mundungus Fletcher," croaked the elf, his eyes still tight shut. "Mundungus Fletcher stole it all: Miss Bella's and Miss Cissy's pictures, my Mistress's gloves, the Order of Merlin, First Class, the goblets with the family crest, and — and —"

Kreacher was gulping for air: His hollow chest was rising and falling rapidly, then his eyes flew open and he uttered a bloodcurdling scream.

"— and the locket, Master Regulus's locket, Kreacher did wrong, Kreacher failed in his orders!"

Antoine closed his eyes as he digested that, what he had heard made things harder, if it was stolen, he would have to consult the diary where they could find the Locket.

"Kreacher, I order you to stay still!" Yelled harry and that is what caused Antoine to open his eyes and stare at what was happening, Harry was stopping Kreacher who seemed to be trying to get a poker, to do what Antoine did not know. He watched the Elf freeze before harry released him. Kreacher lay flat on the cold stone floor, tears gushing from his sagging eyes.

"Harry, let him up!" Hermione whispered.

"So he can beat himself up with the poker?" snorted Harry, kneeling beside the elf. "I don't think so. Right, Kreacher, I want the truth: How do you know Mundungus Fletcher stole the locket?"

"Kreacher saw him!" gasped the elf as tears poured over his snout and into his mouth full of graying teeth. "Kreacher saw him coming out of Kreacher's cupboard with his hands full of Kreacher's treasures. Kreacher told the sneak thief to stop, but Mundungus Fletcher laughed and r-ran. . . ."

"You called the locket 'Master Regulus's,' " said Harry. "Why? Where did it come from? What did Regulus have to do with it? Kreacher, sit up and tell me everything you know about that locket, and everything Regulus had to do with it!"

The elf sat up, curled into a ball, placed his wet face between his knees, and began to rock backward and forward. When he spoke, his voice was muffled but quite distinct in the silent, echoing kitchen.

"Master Sirius ran away, good riddance, for he was a bad boy and broke my Mistress's heart with his lawless ways. However, Master Regulus had proper pride; he knew what was due to the name of Black and the dignity of his pure blood. For years, he talked of the Dark Lord, who was going to bring the wizards out of hiding to rule the Muggles and the Muggle-borns . . . and when he was sixteen years old, Master Regulus joined the Dark Lord. So proud, so proud, so happy to serve . . ." Kreacher paused and then looked at him. "And one day, a year after he had joined, Master Regulus came down to the kitchen to see Kreacher. Master Regulus always liked Kreacher. And Master Regulus said . . . he said . . He said that the Dark Lord required an elf."

"The dark lord needed an elf?" Harry repeated he had almost said Voldemort but remembered the taboo word, looking around at Ron and Hermione, who looked just as puzzled as he did.

"Oh yes," moaned Kreacher. "And Master Regulus had volunteered Kreacher. It was an honor, said Master Regulus, an honor for him and for Kreacher, who must be sure to do whatever the Dark Lord ordered him to do . . . and then to c-come home."

Kreacher rocked still faster, his breath coming in sobs. Antoine watched and had a feeling where was this story going; he leaned back and then listened.

"So Kreacher went to the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord did not tell Kreacher what they were to do, but took Kreacher with him to a cave beside the sea. And beyond the cave there was a cavern, and in the cavern was a great black lake . . ."

The hairs on the back of Harry's neck stood up. Kreacher's croaking voice seemed to come to him from across that dark water. He saw what had happened as clearly, as though he had been present.

". . . There was a boat . . .," he said.

Of course, there had been a boat; Harry knew the boat, ghostly green and tiny, bewitched to carry one wizard and one victim toward the island in the center. This, then, was how Voldemort had tested the defenses surrounding the Horcrux: by borrowing a disposable creature, a house-elf . . .

"There was a b-basin full of potion on the island. The D-Dark Lord made Kreacher drink it. . . ."

The elf quaked from head to foot. As Hermione covered her mouth with her hand and Harry's hands fisted until his knuckles were completely white.

"Kreacher drank, and as he drank, he saw terrible things. . . . Kreacher's insides burned. . . . Kreacher cried for Master Regulus to save him, he cried for his Mistress Black, but the Dark Lord only laughed. . . . He made Kreacher drink the entire potion. . . . He dropped a locket into the empty basin. . . . He filled it with more potion. And then the Dark Lord sailed away, leaving Kreacher on the island. . . ." Kreacher continued onward

Harry could see it happening. He watched the dark lord's white, snakelike face vanishing into darkness, those red eyes fixed pitilessly on the thrashing elf whose death would occur within minutes, whenever he succumbed to the desperate thirst that the burning potion caused its victim. . . . However, Harry's imagination could go no further, for he could not see how Kreacher had escaped.

"Kreacher needed water, he crawled to the island's edge and he drank from the black lake . . . and hands, dead hands, came out of the water and dragged Kreacher under the surface," he continued.

"How did you get away?" Harry asked, and he was not surprised to hear himself whispering.

Kreacher raised his ugly head and looked at Harry with his great, bloodshot eyes.

"Master Regulus told Kreacher to come back," he said.

"I know — but how did you escape the Inferi?" Harry asked as he looked at the house elf.

Kreacher did not seem to understand. And once again repeated what he had said

"Master Regulus told Kreacher to come back,"

"I know, but —" harry started to say but was interrupted by Ron.

"Well, it's obvious, isn't it, Harry?" said Ron. "He Disapparated!"

"But . . . you couldn't Apparate in and out of that cave," said Harry, "otherwise Dumbledore —"

"Elf magic isn't like wizard's magic is it?" said Ron. "I mean, they can Apparate and Disapparate in and out of Hogwarts when we can't."

There was silence as Harry digested this. How could the dark lord have made such a mistake? However, even as he thought this, Hermione spoke, and her voice was icy.

"Of course, the dark lord would have considered the ways of house elves far beneath his notice, just like all the purebloods that treat them like animals. . . . It would never have occurred to him that they might have magic that he didn't," said Hermione in her know it all Voice.

"The house-elf's highest law is his Master's bidding," intoned Kreacher. "Kreacher was told to come home, so Kreacher came home. . . ."

"Well, then, you did what you were told, didn't you?" said Hermione kindly. "You didn't disobey orders at all!"

Kreacher shook his head, rocking as fast as ever. He would follow his master Regulus' orders even if he was dead.

"So what happened when you got back?" Harry asked. "What did Regulus say when you told him what had happened?"

"Master Regulus was very worried, very worried," croaked Kreacher. "Master Regulus told Kreacher to stay hidden and not to leave the house. And then . . . it was a little while later . . . Master Regulus came to find Kreacher in his cupboard one night, and Master Regulus was strange, not as he usually was, disturbed in his mind, Kreacher could tell . . . and he asked Kreacher to take him to the cave, the cave where Kreacher had gone with the Dark Lord. . . ."

Therefore, they had set off. Harry could visualize them quite clearly, the frightened old elf and the thin, dark Seeker who had so resembled Sirius. . . . Kreacher knew how to open the concealed entrance to the underground cavern, knew how to raise the tiny boat; this time it was his beloved Regulus who sailed with him to the island with its basin of poison. . . .

"And he made you drink the potion?" said Harry, disgusted.

However, Kreacher shook his head and wept. Hermione's hands leapt to her mouth: She seemed to have understood something. Antoine also understood, as he was not giving his full attention to the house elf. If what Kreacher was saying then Regulus met a watery end.

"M-Master Regulus took from his pocket a locket like the one the Dark Lord had," said Kreacher, tears pouring down either side of his snoutlike nose. "And he told Kreacher to take it and, when the basin was empty, to switch the lockets. . . ."

Kreacher's sobs came in great rasps now; Harry had to concentrate hard to understand him.

"And he ordered — Kreacher to leave — without him. In addition, he told Kreacher — to go home — and never to tell my Mistress — what he had done — but to destroy — the first locket. And he drank — all the potion — and Kreacher swapped the lockets — and watched . . . as Master Regulus . . . was dragged beneath the water . . . and . . ."

"Oh, Kreacher!" wailed Hermione, who was crying. She dropped to her knees beside the elf and tried to hug him. At once he was on his feet, cringing away from her, quite obviously repulsed. Antoine closed his eyes and sent a silent prayer to Regulus back for his brave sacrifice.

"The Mudblood touched Kreacher, he will not allow it, what would his Mistress say?" Kreacher said but then froze at what he said and then started to bang his head on the floor.

"I told you not to call her 'Mudblood'!" snarled Harry, but the elf was already punishing himself: He fell to the ground and banged his forehead on the floor.

"Stop him — stop him!" Hermione cried. "Oh, don't you see now how sick it is, the way they've got to obey?"

"Kreacher — stop, stop!" shouted Harry.

The elf lay on the floor, panting and shivering, green mucus glistening around his snout, a bruise already blooming on his pallid forehead where he had struck himself, his eyes swollen and bloodshot and swimming in tears. Harry had never seen anything so pitiful.

"So you brought the locket home," he said relentlessly, for he was determined to know the full story. "And you tried to destroy it?"

"Nothing Kreacher did made any mark upon it," moaned the elf. "Kreacher tried everything, everything he knew, but nothing, nothing would work. . . . So many powerful spells upon the casing, Kreacher was sure the way to destroy it was to get inside it, but it would not open. . . . Kreacher punished himself, he tried again, he punished himself, and he tried again. Kreacher failed to obey orders; Kreacher could not destroy the locket! And his Mistress was mad with grief, because Master Regulus had disappeared, and Kreacher could not tell her what had happened, no, because Master Regulus had f-f-forbidden him to tell any of the f-f-family what happened in the c-cave. . . ."

Kreacher began to sob so hard that there were no more coherent words. Tears flowed down Hermione's cheeks as she watched Kreacher, but she did not dare touch him again. Even Ron, who was no fan of Kreacher's, looked troubled. Harry sat back on his heels and shook his head, trying to clear it.

"I don't understand you, Kreacher," he said finally. "The dark lord tried to kill you, Regulus died to bring the dark lord down, but you were still happy to betray Sirius to The dark lord? You were happy to go to Narcissa and Bellatrix, and pass information to the dark lord through them. . . ."

"Harry, Kreacher doesn't think like that," said Hermione, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand. "He's a slave; house-elves are used to bad, even brutal treatment; what the dark lord did to Kreacher wasn't that far out of the common way. What do wizard wars mean to an elf like Kreacher? He is loyal to people who are kind to him, and Mrs. Black must have been, and Regulus certainly was, so he served them willingly and parroted their beliefs. I know what you're going to say," she went on as Harry began to protest, "that Regulus changed his mind . . . but he doesn't seem to have explained that to Kreacher, does he? In addition, I think I know why. Kreacher and Regulus's family were all safer if they kept to the old pureblood line. Regulus was trying to protect them all."

"Sirius —" harry began.

"Sirius was horrible to Kreacher, Harry, and it's no good looking like that, you know it's true. Kreacher had been alone for a long time when Sirius came to live here, and he was probably starving for a bit of affection. I am sure 'Miss Cissy' and 'Miss Bella' were perfectly lovely to Kreacher when he turned up, so he did them a favor and told them everything they wanted to know. I have said all along that wizards would pay for how they treat house-elves. Well, the dark lord did . . . and so did Sirius," Hermione said and then stared at Kreacher and then Antoine stared at Hermione and then at the House elf and then had a neutral look on his face. The Malfoys were no less kind to the house elves, there was no love lost and they were not completely loyal. If Hermione was right then perhaps he could change that.

Harry had no retort. As he watched Kreacher sobbing on the floor, he remembered what Dumbledore had said to him, mere hours after Sirius's death:

"I do not think Sirius ever saw Kreacher as a being with feelings as acute as a human's."

"Kreacher," said Harry after a while, "when you feel up to it, er . . . please sit up."

It was several minutes before Kreacher hiccupped himself into silence. Then he pushed himself into a sitting position again, rubbing his knuckles into his eyes like a small child.

"Kreacher, I am going to ask you to do something," said Harry.

He glanced at Hermione for assistance. He wanted to give the order kindly, but at the same time, he could not pretend that it was not an order. However, the change in his tone seemed to have gained her approval: She smiled encouragingly.

"Kreacher, I want you, please, to go and find Mundungus Fletcher. We need to find out where the locket — where Master Regulus's locket is. It is really important. We want to finish the work Master Regulus started, we want to — er — ensure that he didn't die in vain," He looked at him and found that the elf was looking at him.

"Find Mundungus Fletcher?" he croaked.

"And bring him here, to me," said Harry. "Do you think you could do that for us?"

As Kreacher nodded and got to his feet, Harry had a sudden inspiration. He pulled out Hagrid's purse and took out the fake Horcrux, the substitute locket in which Regulus had placed the note to the dark lord.

"Kreacher, I'd, er, like you to have this," he said, pressing the locket into the elf's hand. "This belonged to Regulus and I'm sure he'd want you to have it as a token of gratitude for what you —"

Kreacher silenced him after taking one look at the locket fell down and then started bawling his eyes out.

"Overkill, mate," said Ron. Antoine had to agree as he was looking at the house elf with a raised eyebrow. All this just for a replica? Impossible, he wouldn't understand the thought of a house elf… or was it perhaps the way he was raised?

It took them nearly half an hour to calm down Kreacher, who was so overcome to be presented with a Black family heirloom for his very own that he was too weak at the knees to stand properly. When finally he was able to totter a few steps they all accompanied him to his cupboard, watched him tuck up the locket safely in his dirty blankets, and assured him that they would never touch it. He then made two low bows to Harry and Ron, and even gave a funny little spasm in Hermione's direction that might have been an attempt at a respectful salute, before Disapparating with the usual loud crack.

"Well what shall we do now?" Ron asked and then Antoine looked outside into the sky and then turned to them.

"Well we go back to the hotel, and wait for Kreacher there," said Antoine. "We can do nothing but wait for the house elf."

They all looked at each other and then they left the place and headed back to the Hotel to wait for Kreacher there, not in this dusty place where it is complexly unsanitary for them to live in. Antoine saw that most of the food had mold and didn't want to attempt eating any of them anytime soon.

Thank you for reading this Chapter… Please review, a great review will keep me going. Thank you

Long Authors notes:

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juliannaspencer21


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